


the truth these eyes can see

by The_Side



Category: Naruto
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Awkward Flirting, Canon - Manga, Childhood Friends, Everyone Has Issues, F/M, Konoha Village, Mental Health Issues, POV Multiple, Role Reversal (Sort of?)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-19
Updated: 2014-12-15
Packaged: 2018-02-26 05:11:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 64,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2639348
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Side/pseuds/The_Side
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Team Seven's creation is met by eye rolls and accusations of favoritism. This is the least of their problems.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So! This is a modernized-ish version of Konoha/the Hidden Continent. Most of it is pretty basic, some will be explained, but for the sake of the beginning of the story, here's something you need to know:
> 
> After the Third Great Shinobi War, the minimum graduation age for a genin became fifteen (though, like high school, you can technically graduate at fourteen depending on where your birthday falls). After, you could become a chuunin and jonin at any time. You can't join the Anbu until you've passed your eighteenth birthday.
> 
> That should clear up any confusion as to the first part.

In the aftermath of the failed uprising, Uchiha Itachi has to fight with every ounce of stubbornness he has to get single custody of Sasuke. “I’m fifteen,” he says. “I became a chuunin last week. I’m a legal adult.”

His old school teachers and jonin instructor back him up. Sasuke cries until emotional distress causes his newly acquired Sharingan to activate. Finally, a woman by the name of Haruno Mebuki says, “I’ll have to visit once a month until you’re eighteen, and we’ll have to require mandatory counselling for Sasuke, as he’s a minor, but you _are_ right.”

Haruno Mebuki is a caseworker. She doesn’t care one way or the other what the Uchiha family tried to do. These are just a couple of kids with no involvement. One of them she knows personally, a boy from her daughter’s class. Though she doesn’t know much about the Sharingan, she knows it isn’t normal to develop it at ten. According to one of the jonin who found them, Itachi’s changed, and she has no idea what that’s about it. To her, it doesn’t really matter.

All that matters is that they’re taken proper care of.

“Fine,” the boy says. “He’ll see a counselor. Whatever you want. Just promise you won’t have us separated.”

Making promises in this business is never a good idea. “I promise,” she says anyway. “You and your brother will be all right as long as you follow instructions.”

Sasuke sticks to Itachi’s side, hand wrapped loosely at the hem of his shirt. Yesterday he watched his brother kill his father in self protection. Both saw about half their family killed. Apparently the jonin found them crouched in one of the bedrooms, covered in blood.

Somewhere back home Kizashi should be making Sakura an afternoon snack after a day at the Academy, which she only joined because _Oh yes, please, Mommy, Ino’s doing it, I want to be kunoichi_. Looking at these boys now, Mebuki is seriously debating pulling her daughter out of that school and putting her in Konoha Public instead.

“I’ve been taking care of Sasuke since I was five,” Itachi says, and puts his arm around his brother’s shoulders. “It’s not like our parents ever did anything.”

 _Don’t speak ill of the dead_ , civilians like her have a tendency to say, but here’s a kid of fifteen speaking ill of his parents already.

That pretty much seals the deal. Mebuki signs all the proper forms. “I’ll help you find an apartment,” she tells them. “Until then, Fireside Inn offers free rooms for special circumstances, if you don’t have anywhere else.”

Itachi practically deflates, some of the tension leaving his shoulders. “Thank you,” he says, and reaches down to pick up his brother who mumbles something she can’t hear. “I know, Sasuke. The inn will have a shower.”

Despite the horrifying revelation that the statement brings on, Mebuki manages to keep her voice steady when she asks, “Do you need a ride? I only a half hour before I take a lunch break, and it’s on the way to the bakery.”

“I know where it is. We’ll be all right.”

Though she doesn’t know if “all right” is something she believes, she hands him the proper papers to sign anyway. They can figure out the rest tomorrow. More when he’s found an apartment. The counselor is important, too. Shinobi rarely go, but Sasuke’s just a school kid. Eleven. Or, no.

She rifles through the papers once the boys are gone, and finds Sasuke’s birthday, something half remembered from a conversation with Sakura god knows how long ago. _23 July, 189._

He’s ten. _Ten_. Sakura’s three months older than him. If she witnessed something like that at this age, she would never recover. Considering it was his family, will _Itachi_ recover, either? Killing strangers is one thing. Killing your father is another.

Watching your brother kill your father who’s trying to kill you is something else altogether.

“Tell Hachiro I’m going on my break early,” she says to her secretary, and grabs her keys.

This is going to be a long two and a half years.

 

 

Sasuke was never a social person, but after his family showed their true colors, people stopped talking to him period. That’s where Naruto comes in.

“There’s only one spare table around here for the school weirdo to sit at for lunch,” he says, dropping into the bench across from Sasuke. “That means one of us’ gotta make more friends fast, or we’re sharing, Uchiha.”

Across the courtyard, a bunch of people not so discreetly watching the sudden interaction of the two school freaks quickly look away when they realize Sasuke caught them. As much as he wants to be alone right now, or even forever, maybe, Itachi says he’s supposed to make friends. Well, and the counselor, but Sasuke doesn’t really care about what he thinks.

Even though Naruto’s weird, at least he’s also an outsider, which means he’s actually willing to have a conversation with the kid whose family tried to stage an uprising. “Fine,” Sasuke says, stabbing his straw into his juice box, “but only if you don’t call me Uchiha.”

With a grin, Naruto tears open the paper bag with his lunch. He lives with Umino Iruka, the teacher for the tenth years, Sasuke remembers. “Sounds good,” Naruto says, and uncaps a plastic container of ramen.

Like this, they’re friends.

  
  


 

It’s a rainy Tuesday in late December when Sasuke really notices the case worker’s daughter for the first time.

He’s walking alone back from his psychologist’s office in the cold, because Itachi’s out on a mission and Iruka’s forcing Naruto to practice his aim. This isn't unusual; the older Sasuke gets, the more his brother gets sent out, and the more Naruto flounders. There’s something awkward and two-toned about his chakra, which Naruto is clueless about, apparently, and when Sasuke tried to bring it up to Itachi, he just dodged the subject. After that, he stopped trying to figure it out.

Right as he rounds the street that leads to his neighborhood, a girl flies out of the front door of the Yamanaka house with shout of, “My _god_ , Ino, you win!”

Here’s Konoha, grey from the rain and the sky, bleaching color from the house, no leaves on the trees to add anything, and Sasuke’s mood is just as low as the sky. So then here’s this girl, and she’s dressed in some bright yellow dress with a bright red ribbon, only made brighter by her bright pink hair. It’s like she’s trying to defy the weather.

Except that she’s clearly crying, shivering as she wraps her sweater tighter around herself. “Hey,” she says over the rain when she notices him. “You’re Sasuke, right? From school? Can you hold your umbrella over me for a second?”

The rain’s already drenched her through, and he might be an orphan, but he still knows how to be polite. So he offers her his umbrella. “Is this okay?” he says, and she nods as she pulls out her cell phone. “Uh, sorry, but what’s your name again? Haruno?”

She laughs. “Oh, yeah. Haruno, ‘Ino’s Best Friend,’” she says, and he doesn’t know how to tell her he actually knows because she’s the miniature version of her mother, who swings by his apartment every month. Her family symbol might just be a plain white circle, but she has it on the back of all her shirts like most kids, and it’s obvious. “It’s Sakura. Nice to meet you. Or to talk to you. Or to, I don’t know.”

“Share an umbrella?”

“Yeah, why not?”

As mildly awkward as it is, it could be worse. Right now he’s inching towards one of those moods where the whole world just seems colorless, and Sakura’s almost a relief. There’s too much of her not to notice. “Thanks, Sasuke,” she says, and smiles. “It’s like impossible to text in the rain. Stupid touch screens. I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Wait,” he says, realizing what she means. “You’re going to walk home in this?”

Giving him an odd look, she points out, “Well, _you_ are, aren't you? My mom’s still at work. I just had to text her to tell her she didn't have to come get me.”

Maybe it’s a dumb idea, maybe it’s not, but this girl just made his day a thousand times better by existing, so he thinks it’s fair exchange when he tilts out the handle of his umbrella. “Take it,” he says. “I don’t mind the rain.”

“Oh, come on, we’re shinobi in training, no romance characters,” she says, and laughs again.

With a shrug, he tells her, “I’m like five minutes from home. And keep it, you don’t need to return it to me tomorrow or anything.”

Though clearly reluctant, common sense must win over politeness, because she accepts the handle. “But I’m going to see you tomorrow,” she says. “Why wouldn't I?”

For a second, he just sort of stares at her. Then, “Won’t the social hierarchy disown or something for associating with me?”

She glances up at the Yamanaka house. “Yeah,” she says. “Maybe. But fuck them.” Then she smiles brightly, all white teeth and tan skin and pink hair, and large green, green eyes. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Sasuke.”

So it might be a little ridiculous, but as he watches her walk away with his umbrella and stands unprotected in the downpour, Sasuke thinks he might be a little in love with her already.

  


 

Waking up in Sasuke’s bed is a pretty normal occurrence. That said, it shouldn't be something to occur the day of their final graduation exam and genin testing. If it weren't for Itachi’s, “Sasuke, get your ass out of bed so I can feed you!” Naruto probably wouldn't have woken up.

It’s a genuine struggle, trying to bring himself to awareness, because when Sakura really puts her mind into making him study, she goes hard. But he’s pretty much forced into it when she yelps, and the bed bounces, followed by Sasuke saying, “Don’t hurt yourself, you idiot.”

Naruto narrowly avoids a pillow to his face as he sits up. “Shut up, jerk,” Sakura says. “I refuse to fail for something as dumb as a bruised tailbone.”

“Well, fuck both of you,” Naruto says. “I call first shower.”

“But I have to blow dry my hair!”

“Do you really think Itachi or I own a blow drier?” Sasuke says, and grabs Naruto’s hand, dragging him out of bed. 

Sakura yawns, and starts piling her stuff into her bag. Downstairs, Itachi calls, “Did Naruto accidentally stay over again!”

Not letting Sasuke get to it first, Naruto answers, “And Sakura!”

His answer is a long, very audible sigh. Really, Itachi is just the best for putting up with the three of them. Iruka would've kicked Sasuke and Sakura out last night so he could study.

“My house is technically on the way to the Academy anyway,” Sakura says, “so I changed my mind. I refuse to go in for the final day of school looking anything but my absolute best.”

When Naruto glances at Sasuke, his friend just shrugs. _Girls_. “I’ll walk you to the door,” he says, rubbing his eye. “Naruto, go start on your shower so you don’t take forever.”

As if he ever takes more than fifteen minutes. He sticks his tongue out as the other two leave, a gesture Sakura returns while Sasuke just rolls his eyes, and the bedroom door slams in face. Today is going to be totally great, Naruto tells himself, and trudges off to the bathroom.

 

 

By the time Sasuke comes back from his genin testing and Naruto leaves, Sakura’s read through her whole final report, and right now she really wishes she had some of her friend’s insane techniques because she’d love to just burn this thing. It doesn’t make her feel any better when she hears a disgruntled kid in front of her say, “He has the damn Sharingan. That’s practically cheating.”

Though Sasuke tenses, he doesn’t do anything, which she thinks is ridiculous. It’s not like he doesn’t have a backbone. “Why are you glaring at your results like they spelled out the end of the world?” he asks instead. “It’s not like you failed.”

Well, yeah. Of course she didn’t fail. In fact, according to Iruka, she tied with Sasuke for written, and that’s impressive. “Look at my taijutsu score,” she answers, shoving the rubric in his direction. “I really went out of my way to practice with you, you know that?”

“That could end up being a good thing,” he says, and pushes his paper towards her. “Look at my results. We might end up as a team together since your scores aren’t perfect.”

Naturally, he’s Rookie of the Year. Big surprise there. The wonderful Sasuke happens to not only be attractive as fuck, but also a genius with crazy chakra reserves, a kekkei genkai, and a famous brother to teach him how to use it. He tries his best to pass on those teachings to her and Naruto, but she has so little chakra it’s actually pathetic, and Naruto’s attention span is so short he can’t absorb anything. But outside of taijutsu, which is barely above failing, and her lower end of average ninjutsu scores, she’s pretty okay. People who are good and Rookie of the Year don’t get paired together. So what’s he talking about?

Then she sees it: _History of mental instability_. Oh. The guy’s stuck going to a psychologist every week, naturally there’s going to be a comment. And if she’s totally honest with herself, she has a feeling he wouldn't even be allowed to go through if it weren't for his scores.

Alternatively, she’s down for being mentally stable. Teams are created on the grounds of “skill balance and psychological compatibility.” Average and stable against perfect and unstable? She can see it. The boys are pretty assured they’re going to end up together. With Naruto having some of the lowest scores, they’re like the definition of “skill balance.”

“If Iruka made the teams, we’d be together in a heartbeat,” she says.

“Yeah. If only. At least I know who my jonin is going to be,” he says. “Kakashi’s the only one outside of Itachi and I with a Sharingan, so it’s inevitable.”

Naruto comes back way too quick, and everyone else is too distracted with each other to notice. His was the last test of the day. His grin is too tight to be real. “I failed by a point,” he says between his teeth as he flops into the seat next to her. “I have to go summer school and redo the test at the end of June.”

Sasuke, who’s already pretty pale, goes paler. “You literally live with our teacher,” he says. “Can’t you do something?”

“In one night?” Naruto answers. “Sasuke, I might be the most amazing person ever, but even I’m not a miracle worker.”

“Whatever happened to not giving up?”

“Whoever said anything about giving up?”

When she tries to put a hand on Sasuke’s shoulder as just some small sign of comfort, he shrinks away. After years of dealing with this, she’s not insulted. “There’s still a chance we might end up together,” she says, and doesn’t miss how Naruto’s eyes shoot to the desk.

The panic is justifiable. Like him ending up with Kakashi, ending up with Naruto was basically an inevitability. And the lack of clan symbol on his back is a blatant reminder that half the town won’t look at him, and the other half will make snide comments whenever they get the chance. Ending up with anyone else from Konoha would just be, well, _bad_. She can deal with people. These two can’t, though at least Naruto pretends he can.

As Iruka comes back on to give the graduation speech, Sasuke says, “Yeah. Yeah, you’re right,” and she prays for more reason than one that they get a miracle.

It would be nice if Naruto could pull a miracle, too.

  


 

Then Naruto pulls a miracle.

“How are you here?” Sakura asks, finding him already. “Oh god. Please tell me Iruka didn’t make you come in anyway.”

He shakes his head, and right then Sasuke’s says from behind her, “You’re here?”

With a very un-Naruto-ish sigh, their friend answers, “Sit down. I’ll explain everything later. Just not now.”

Considering that he’s like the least secretive person on the planet, this is actually sort of creepy. She exchanges a glance with Sasuke, who just raises an eyebrow and shrugs, before they take their seats. At least he looks better today than he had yesterday when Itachi picked him up. More alert. Some of it is probably adrenaline. She’s feeling enough of it herself to know - Hell, being all official means it’s better she wears pants, and she’s Haruno Sakura. Her whole life is sundresses. It’s more than enough reason to get nervous over.

Once everyone’s shuffled into their seat, Iruka hits something on his tablet, and without looking up, says, “Kiba, Naruto, come down here and collect these boxes in order to pass everyone their forehead protectors.”

Looking absolutely miserable, Naruto pulls himself out of his chair and shuffles past the two of them to get down. Calling on him is like a passive aggressive form of punishment, so however he ended up here must’ve gotten him in trouble. What could it possibly have been?

“Congratulations to all of you for making it this far. I know it hasn't been easy,” Iruka continues, ignoring Naruto and Kiba as they start on row one. “Now, I’m going to assign you teams and your team leader, and you should all know by this point that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be with your friends. Teams are organized on the grounds of balancing the members’ skill levels in different areas, and their compatibility together. As usual, there’s about a two thirds sex split in this grade, so most teams will have be comprised of two boys and one girl. Of the ten teams formed, an estimated six will return for the summer program after your second round of testing with your jonin leader.

“Team One, with jonin Kita Atsuko: Fujimoto Hakura, Hamasaki Ichiro, Oshiro Kiyoshi…”

As he continues with the teams, Sakura steadily gets more and more nervous, and once he hits Team Five, Sasuke lashes out and grabs her hand to stop her from drumming her fingers on the table. To anyone else, he probably looks all calm and composed and cool, but to her, he’s blatantly as nervous as she is.

At six, Naruto reaches the last row, which is theirs, and gives them each their forehead protector before flopping down into his original seat. Her eyes are a dull green in reflection of the metal. Sasuke takes his hand away. She tries not to be too disappointed.

Then, “Team Seven, with jonin Hatake Kakashi: Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto.”

There’s luck and then there’s this. Ino says loud enough that it’s clear they’re meant to hear, “Wow, talk about favoritism,” which is met by a ripple of disgruntled agreement.

Sakura’s too excited to let it bother her.

With something inching towards his usual obnoxious laugh as Iruka calls out Team Eight (with jonin Kurenai: Aburame Shino, Hyuga Hinata, and Inuzuka Kiba), Naruto says, “At least I know I’m going to pass.”

Talk about perfect, she thinks, and catches Sasuke actually smiling, which is one of her favorite sights in the world. Yeah. This is going to be _wonderful_.

  


 

There aren't many people in his life that Kakashi would consider “friends,” and Uchiha Itachi even less so, but the two of them were stuck together enough a couple of years ago that they managed. Which means Kakashi’s been around Sasuke with some sort regularity since the kid was about twelve. Meeting Naruto (who’s such a replica of his father it actually isn't fair) and Sakura was guaranteed, and maybe they didn’t hear all the complaints about genin failing the bell test, but Sasuke sure did. Combine that with the three of them already being close to inseparable, and this is completely pointless. They know how to work together.

Still. Rules are rules.

Midway through he realizes reading isn't an option. Naruto knows Kage Bunshin, a jonin level technique, Sakura is borderline impervious to genjutsu with her intelligence on par with Sasuke, and that idiot has a fully mature Sharingan because he’s had it for five years and Itachi is a good teacher. It’s actually annoying how good they are for genin.

Around eleven thirty, though, the Sharingan dies, Sasuke’s chakra reserves not built up enough yet to sustain it for the entirety of a real fight. Since Naruto took the most hits, he’s a bruised mess, and possibly has a mild concussion. Sakura’s the most put together since Sasuke has a blatant crush on her and spent half the fight trying to keep her from getting hit, but her chakra’s pretty depleted too. But they put up a good fight. They proved they know what they’re doing. There’s no point in stretching this the last half hour, and if he returns Sasuke unconscious to his apartment, Itachi might just kill him.

Holding up his hand, he says, “Stop, it’s over. Welcome to Team Seven. Go eat something before you pass out.”

Naruto falls back to the ground with a whoop; Sasuke gives an exhausted sort of smile; Sakura jumps up and down, pink hair flying everywhere. Her elastic band holding it up flew off about an hour ago. When Sasuke looks her way, it’s like he’s trying _not_ to look at her, which is just as pathetic as Itachi described. Kakashi wonders if the boy’s noticed yet that she does the same thing.

So this is Team Seven, then. He might just be able to survive it. After all, what could possibly go wrong with a civilians’ daughter, a half-crazy Uchiha, and the Konoha Jinchuriki?

  


 

As promised, Naruto tells them the entire story of how he managed to pass genin testing the first time around, though apparently he isn’t supposed to. There are a lot of ways to react to finding out your best friend is a Jinchuriki with the Kyuubi stuck inside of him, and Sasuke has feeling laughing hysterically isn’t one of them.

Both his friends to turn to stare at him, incredulous. “I’m telling the truth,” Naruto says. “This isn’t funny.”

As he calms down, he says, “No, no, it’s not. It’s just, I’m like the one person in our generation who already knew about the attack. I had no idea you were the Jinchuriki, though. This is fucked up.”

“Wait, how did you know?” Sakura asks. “He just said no one was supposed.”

“Because it’s probably a good idea to tell the kid whose family staged an uprising why his family tried to stage an uprising,” he answers, and looks to Naruto. “Did they tell you how you control a tailed-beast? Or did they just leave that part out?”

Naruto’s mouth is open with shock, looking as surprised as Sasuke feels. “No, that part they left out,” he answers. “What does your family have to do with anything?”

Oh, of course. This is Naruto. A little slow on the update. “Are you saying the Sharingan can do it?” Sakura says, because she isn’t. “Or is there some other Uchiha secret you haven’t told us about? It’s not like you talk about your family.”

Yeah, because they suck, and these are his friends. He’d rather keep them that way, and this might’ve just dashed that to pieces. They’re screwing up his life from beyond the grave. “The Mangekyo Sharingan, though a fully matured Sharingan has some form of control, supposedly,” he says. “I don’t know if they actually did anything, but the Council stopped trusting my family after the attack and essentially ostracized them. They waited until Itachi was a genin, Itachi said no because it put me in harm’s way and he didn't want to betray Konoha, and the rest is already in history books.”

It’s rare that he talks this much in one go, but he doesn’t feel like breaking this into pieces. He just found his friend has something locked inside him that lead to the downfall of his family. His family pretty much sucked to begin with. But the point still remains that technically Sasuke, or at least Itachi, could control Naruto if something went wrong, and that’s just messed up.

The same thought seems to pass through his mind, because he says, “If this seal ever breaks, at least I know I’m in good hands.”

“Didn’t you say something about Naruto’s chakra being weird?” Sakura says. “This could be why. Like, he has two reserves inside him.”

“Yeah, that makes sense.”

“How are the two of you so calm about this?”

Shrugging, Sasuke says, “My brother developed the Mangekyo at fifteen. Trust me, nothing’s surprising after that.”

“And you’re my friend,” Sakura says. “I don’t care if the Yondaime decided to seal something inside a random baby orphan. It’s not your fault. It just means he was an asshole.”

That gets Naruto laugh, loud and obnoxious, and clearly half out of relief than actual humor. Sakura just rolls her eyes, and Sasuke thinks that finding out your friend is a Jinchuriki isn’t supposed to be treated this normally, but whatever. He’s a freak, too, and stopped caring years ago.

  


 

Having a late birthday means technically you can become a genin at fourteen, but you can’t take any missions outside Konoha’s walls until after you turn fifteen. This means all of their missions are easy, short, and boring.

“The woman lost her cat again,” Sasuke says, dropping onto the couch. “Itachi, I don’t remember your missions being this boring when you were a genin.”

Right now his brother’s filling out a mission report, having just returned after two weeks, but he can finish one of those in an hour, so Sasuke doesn’t feel guilty interrupting. “That’s because my team could leave,” Itachi says, not looking up. “I’m beginning to think the woman is losing her cat on purpose, though. Three times is not normal.”

No, it really isn’t, and the way she looks at Kakashi just backs up the theory. She’s married to a seventy-year-old man, is about fifty, and getting a famous shinobi to rescue her pet is probably the closest to any action she’s had in years. “The cat is evil, and I hate both of them,” he says, and doesn’t mention the real reason he wants harder missions, though his brother probably knows already.

The harder the mission, the higher the pay. It’s a system that makes sense. Because of Itachi and his own obsessive perfectionism, Sasuke already has the skill set of a chuunin. If Naruto and Sakura get the experience necessary for Kakashi to agree to sign them into the chuunin exams come December and they pass, then Sasuke’s pay will double. And if he gets double pay, he can actually help with things like the mortgage and groceries and everything else he and Itachi need to live on. His brother won’t need to go out on missions so much.

It’s ridiculous. He knows it, too. Itachi is an Anbu captain, he’s one of the best shinobi in Konoha. But that doesn’t make Sasuke’s intense fear that one day his brother’s going to die on a mission any less real.

“I’m almost done,” Itachi says, pushing his glasses up his nose. “You can pick something for dinner if you aren’t meeting up with your team. Just remember to eat something. We don’t need a repeat of last Wednesday.”

“Sakura invited me over. No, not like that.”

“Hm. A pity.”

Maybe Sasuke would be less worried if he brother wasn’t going blind.

  


 

Now that he’s a genin, a legal adult, and spends most of his time with his team, Sasuke can finally stop going to his psychologist. Though the guy wasn’t bad, it still sucked. So, there’s a lot wrong with him, he gets that, but he doesn’t need to talk it out. He knows his limitations. There was no point in the appointments.

Outside of Thursdays, back when he was in school, he spent most of his time with Naruto and Sakura unless it was Itachi’s first day back from a long mission. Being teammates only makes it worse. But the point behind Thursdays is they’re almost always slow for jobs, and Konoha Cinema offers free movies between four and midnight. Because of his psychologist appointments, Sasuke never had a chance to go to any before.

The aisles fill up quick. They don’t pay attention to the title. Somehow, they manage to score middle seats, and Sasuke ends up between his friends, in charge of all the movie food. “So you turn fifteen in a week,” Sakura says, already snagging chocolate when the previews aren’t even over, and leaning so close the smell of her shampoo invades his personal space. “We already know what we’re doing for you.”

Normally, Sasuke hates his birthday. Rather than mark milestones as a kid, it marked disappointment, usually from his dad - “By the time Itachi was your age…” he’d say, and then insert whatever his older son had done at such and such age. It also marked the first time he ever heard his brother and parents fight over the uprising, though he hadn’t known what is was at the time. After everything, both Itachi and his friends learned it was better to ignore the day altogether.

But this time it actually meant something good was going to happen.

“Yeah, it is,” he says, and takes a sip of his water. “We can leave the walls.”

He can practically hear his dad saying, “By the time Itachi was your age, he’d gone on at least three C-ranked missions outside the city.”

“About that,” Naruto says. “I’m going to be as annoying as I can and force the Sandaime to give us one, so don’t be a dick and try to get me to stop.”

Sasuke rolls his eyes. “Tell that to Kakashi.”

As the movie starts, Sakura tells him, “We already have,” and settles more comfortably in her seat so they’re pressed arm to arm, her hair tickling his shoulder.

Turning fifteen is going to make everything better. Maybe, just maybe, if he’s lucky, he’ll even get through this without screwing up.

 

  
  


As expected, Naruto’s powers of being annoying get them the mission, but then someone to the right of the Sandaime says, “If they want a harder mission, wouldn’t it make more sense to give the Sharingan to a one that requires combat?” and Sasuke’s whole body tenses up.

“Uchiha Sasuke’s been a genin for two months,” the Sandaime answers dryly. “Sharingan or not, this is difficult enough. Hatake?”

Kakashi says it will be, and accepts the mission report. By the time they leave the building and meet up with the client, Sasuke’s actually shaking. When Sakura tries to touch him, he moves away. “Everyone go get a change of clothes for the journey. We’re going to have an overnight,” Kakashi tells all of them before turning to the old man. “We weren’t expecting this. You’ll have to excuse them for a moment.”

When they leave, Sakura asks, “Are you all right?” and Sasuke actually snaps, “I’m fine,” before leaving on his own.

“People suck,” she says with a sigh when he’s gone, and Naruto agrees. He might not have a family he’s stuck getting defined by, but even he gets that was just insulting.

“I better leave a note for Iruka,” he says, and he and Sakura split, too.

Well, at least they’re getting out the walls for a couple of days to somewhere with an ocean, and he considers that a good enough break to make up for anything.

 

 

Kakashi’s the one to beat the Kiri-nin, but Naruto can at least say the three of them made dent. He’d feel a lot better about it if he didn’t end up with a cut and Sasuke didn’t nearly take out two on his own, that lucky bastard. A childhood of getting trained by his brother really gave him an unfair head start.

Unfair or not, though, it at least gets them something good; despite Tazuna lying, they’re allowed to continue the mission. “Thank you,” the old man says. “If any of you has anyone you need to call, you can do so at my house. I think it’s clear it’s no secret I have a party of shinobi with me.”

That’s good, because Iruka thinks he’s only going to be gone for a couple of days. Uncertainty on missions is pretty normal, but this is his first real one, and Naruto doesn’t want Iruka to worry. Sakura’s parents are civilians, they’d absolutely freak. Last he’d checked with Sasuke, though, Itachi isn’t even home. Ouch.

The Kiri-nin (sorry, _Demon Brothers_ , what a lame name) busted up Tazuna’s car, which means walking the rest of the walk. “Come on, guys,” Kakashi says, hitching his pack higher up on his shoulders. “I want to make it to the river bridge before nightfall.”

“I don’t know whether to be excited or annoyed,” Sakura says with a scowl, “but if this doesn’t end with a swim in the ocean as reward for getting lied to, I’m going to kill something.”

“Be careful what you say, Sakura,” Sasuke tells her. “It looks like you might have to.”

  


 

By using the telepathic power only achieved by being best friends for years, Naruto and Sasuke manage to free Kakashi while Sakura guards Tazuna. Except now Kakashi’s all burnt out, and they literally have to carry him back. And he might look skinny, but he’s all muscle, and he’s heavy.

Tazuna’s family is nice enough, he finds, though Inari’s a brat who’s glued to his video game device and smiles less than Sasuke. At least Tsunami, the guy’s daughter, can cook, because after today, Naruto’s starving. “So how long have you all been shinobi?” the woman asks as she takes a seat across from them. “Dad tells me you did really well earlier.”

“Two months,” Sakura answers, stepping on Naruto’s foot before he can, probably because he still has food in his mouth. “Sasuke only recently turned fifteen, so we spent a while inside Konoha before being allowed to take missions outside.”

There’s a moment of silence. Then Tazuna says, “I ended up with a couple of newbies? But I asked for C-rank.”

“Hey, what happened to ‘did really well?’” Naruto says, offended, at the same time Sasuke tells them, “Don’t worry. I’m C-rank level already.”

Well, at least one of them is modest. Before Naruto can point that excuse _you_ , Mr. Perfectionist, but he and Sakura are pretty good too, Kakashi emerges, hair messier than usual and using the wall for support. “I’m sorry to trouble you,” he says, “but is there anything I can use as a crutch? There’s something I need to teach these three.”

Tazuna says he does, and he’ll get it, and Inari swears as his video game beeps sadly in his hands. “Language, Inari,” Tsunami says, and wipes her hands off on a napkin. “Dad, stay here. I’ll get it.”

As she gets up, Sakura asks, “What do you need to show us?”

“How to climb a tree.”

Sasuke twists around. “Itachi taught me how to do that when I was nine.”

“Fine. Two,” Kakashi says, and cringes as he walks forward again. “You can help me show these two how to do it. All of you, eat something. You’re about to use a lot of chakra - yes, Sasuke, you, too.”

Once Tsunami’s returned, Naruto’s already done eating. If Sasuke could learn how to do this at nine, then he can _definitely_ learn this within a few hours, he tells himself.

  


 

Sakura’s always had pretty great chakra control, and Sasuke’s not surprised when she makes it up on the first try. After, she helps him try to coach Naruto through going up too, since Kakashi’s exhausted and has to go back. “It’s not like it’s his fault,” she says as they watch Naruto fall back to the ground. “Having two types of chakra must make control really hard.”

That would make sense, but it’s not like Sasuke’s going to say anything and give Naruto another excuse. “You’re using too much chakra,” he calls instead. “Tone it down.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because you’re leaving fucking indents in the tree.”

The sun is starting to go down. In the reddish light, Sakura’s hair glows. She was born with a natural disadvantage and still managed to pass the stealth section of their exam anyway. “What do you think is going to happen?” she asks, keeping an eye on their friend. “I mean, I know we’re going to fight him again. That’s inevitable. But look at what he did to Kakashi.”

Sasuke blinks, and his eyes are red. “Kakashi wasn’t the only one making a recording,” he says, letting the Sharingan fade. “Nothing’s going to happen to you.”

With a slight frown, she says, “I know _that_. There are four of us. You know, you’d be in danger a lot less if you focus on yourself and Tazuna instead of worrying about me and Naruto, too. We might not have a famous older brother to teach us a whole bunch of cool tricks, but we had the Academy. We had you. I’m not saying we’d ever be able to defeat him, but we can at least defend ourselves.”

“I didn’t mean to -”

He cuts himself off when she suddenly kisses his cheek. “I don’t like the idea of you getting hurt,” she says, and stands. “Naruto, I’m going to head back. I expect you to have made it back to the tree by the time you do too, got it?”

Naruto, thankfully, waits until she's gone before he starts laughing, and Sasuke is just so screwed.

 

 

“Sasuke? Sasuke! Come on, you’re not leaving me like that!”

Crying as a kunoichi, or a shinobi in general, is against the rules, but she doesn’t care. Sasuke’s not breathing. He’s not _breathing_. Using the amazing power of teamwork, he and Naruto almost defeated Haku quicker than anyone thought, but then the Sharingan overexerted his chakra, and he couldn’t dodge, and now he’s full of needles.

 _The Sharingan’s practically cheating_ , people in their year would say. The thought almost makes her laugh. What would they say now?

When he suddenly does wake, it’s with a gasp, and needles cut into her skin when she hugs him. “I told you not to get yourself hurt,” she says into his shoulder, and she can feel his body trembling.

It takes a moment, but his arm eventually wraps around her, too. “Sorry,” he says. “Won’t happen again.”

Regardless of how skilled he’s supposed to be, she can’t help but think that sounds an awful lot like a lie. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which several major plot points happen much too early, and dating is easy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Several things happen very quickly in this chapter, but they sort of needed to? This follows canon, but it's a serious divergence at the same time, and what happens early is necessary. Also, this technically picks up at Shippuden. They're all Shippuden ages. So at the same time, it's not early? Just read it, it'll all make sense in a minute.

Sasuke’s in the main room of the Council building with his team, waiting for today’s mission, when the woman with the clipboard shows up. “I’m guessing you’re him,” she says without asking around, glancing him up and down. “Uchiha Sasuke?”

“Yes,” he answers, confused. “Why?”

“Uchiha Itachi was admitted to the hospital post-mission roughly three hours ago,” she says. “I know you’re a genin, and you probably want to get to work, but you need to come with me.”

For a second, his thoughts just come to a halt. Then he gets out, “What happened?”

“I’m sorry, but I’m not allowed to discuss details in a public place.”

Behind him, Kakashi says, “Go. I’m going to go take us off call today.”

He doesn’t say, _I’m sure it’s nothing_. Itachi’s an Anbu. Itachi hasn’t been hospitalized in years. After all, he’s too good to get hurt, he has the Mangekyo Sharingan, he barely even has to lift a finger to win a battle. What possibly could have gotten to him?

As he leaves, following the woman to her car, he asks, “Can you at least tell me how serious?”

Some of the blankness of her expression cracks, and her shoulders drop. “I’m not allowed to discuss details in a public place,” she repeats, and opens the car door.

This is the start of the worst day of Sasuke’s life.

 

 

When Sasuke thinks hospitals, he thinks of that day after the failed uprising. He and Itachi were covered in blood, and rather than let them shower, some medical-nin who took pity on them gave them wet wash cloths. Both of them had been hurt, but nothing serious. What got to him at the time was the smell. Sick and sterile at the same time, strong enough to cut through blood, and he couldn’t stand the sight of that for a year.

He hasn’t stepped foot inside a hospital since they left the next morning.

Inside Itachi’s room, he finds his brother unconscious on the bed with his eyes bandaged, hooked up to so many wires he doesn’t know where to look, and a jonin he vaguely recognized as one on his brother’s team. “Hey, kid,” he says when he sees Sasuke. “I’m sorry I couldn’t get him back for you in better condition.”

“I don’t care if the mission was confidential,” he says, looking at all the bandages across his brother’s body and face, and the smashed mask on the end table. “What happened?”

The jonin explains it actually had nothing to do with the mission, that they got ambushed by the Akatsuki on the way back, and he and Itachi are the only survivors. “I only made it out because I wasn’t there when the attack happened,” he says. “Your brother managed to make it to me. He took down two. Cat took down another. I don’t know what happened to the rest, but he could barely see by the time he found me. The Sharingan made his eyes bleed. That’s why he has the bandages.”

As much as Sasuke was afraid this was going to happen one day, he never actually thought it would. “Did the medical-nin say he was going to make it?” he asks, taking a deep breath and trying to remain realistic. “No one’s given me a straight answer yet. I can take it.”

There’s a pause before the jonin answers, “She said it’s unlikely he’ll last through the night. I’ll give you a minute alone.”

He leaves, the door shutting loud behind him. Machines beep, and Itachi breathes, and Sasuke curls up in the chair to wait until morning.

 

 

An hour later, the noises all stop without Itachi ever watching up. A minute after that, Sasuke realizes what it means.

It must look like I’m crying, he realizes through the haze of pain when Naruto drags him out of the chair so the nurses can come in and tries to pry his hands from his eyes.

Then Kakashi’s saying, “Naruto, Naruto, stop. He’s doing that because it hurts.”

Sasuke always thought it took killing someone to develop the Mangekyo. He hadn’t realized experiencing the death of someone close could do it too.

Oh, god. Itachi. If Sasuke has the Mangekyo Sharingan, then Itachi is. Itachi is -

Sakura smells like the flowers outside her house, soft and sweet and familiar. “Just breathe, Sasuke,” she says, pulling him into a hug. “I know it hurts, but I need you to breathe.”

Inside, a medical-nin calls the time of death, and her voice echoes inside his head. He buries his face into Sakura’s shoulder, trying to drown out the sound, and forgets how to work his lungs.

 

 

During the funeral, Sasuke doesn’t cry, and he didn’t before, and won’t after. Instead, he’s just blank, and silent, and Sakura knows that he’s completely gone the moment he lets her take his hand. Normally when he shuts down, no one’s allowed to touch him. This is the worst she’s ever seen.

The other Anbu had private funerals at the request of their families, but no one even asked Sasuke’s opinion. Of course, son of a traitor or not, Itachi was famous, one of the best shinobi in Konoha; people wanted an opportunity to grieve a fallen soldier. There are more than a few tears, and twice as many murmurs of sworn justice on the Akatsuki, the international terrorist organization gone unchecked for too long. A few past classmates, including Ino and Kiba, give Sasuke their condolences. Adults they’ve never talked to do the same. Most people just ignore him. He doesn’t say anything, just clings to her hand and watches the ground. And she gets it, because she’s still trying to get her mind around the fact that Itachi is gone, too.

Because of the number of attendees, the funeral lasts longer than most, and on behalf of her friend, Sakura’s ready to scream at the end of it that they should all just let him leave already, that half of them didn’t even _know_ Itachi, that Sasuke comes first. But she keeps any and all comments to herself until the end, when Kakashi takes Sasuke under his arm to lead him home, and she asks her parents, “Can I stay with him for a few days? I want to make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid.”

Ever since they became genin and started going out a lot, Sasuke’s been at his most stable for the longest stretch of time she’s seen in all the time she’s known him, but they’ve been friends for a while. It’s not uncommon for him to shut down like this, and it always starts the same way: he stops talking. And he’s a pretty quiet person to begin with, so that’s saying something. More than once, he’s gone either three days straight of sleeping, a week of not sleeping at all, and whether or not he eats is questionable. She knows that’s going to happen again, but she wants to try and keep it as minimal as possible.

Mom tells her, “Come home first. I’ll give you some food to bring,” and Sakura nearly smiles in relief.

By the time she makes it to the apartment, Naruto’s beaten her there and Sasuke’s unresponsive. It still feels like Itachi could walk in at any moment, ready to keep his brother’s head above the water, and this might be the first time he’s actually the cause of one Sasuke’s mood swings. Somehow, that just makes it worse.

 

 

Apparently they’re going for a stretch of not sleeping instead of sleeping forever. A quick brainstorming session with Naruto leads to the obvious solution, and they bring the problem to Kakashi, who already has a solution of his own prepared.

His grand plan to help his student? Tire him out.

“You’re the only one who can do this, Sasuke,” he says once Sakura and Naruto get their friend back out. He’s spent all morning looking around like he isn’t really seeing anything. “Anyone else can’t see the counterattack. Activate your Sharingan so you can copy it, and don’t worry, you’ll be able to use your normal one.”

Sasuke’s eyes turn red and black without him answering, and Kakashi’s hand glows blue, sparking, as the clearing is filled with the sound of birds. A lightning based attack, then. To teach him this, he dragged them all the way out into the woods for privacy. “You got it?” Sasuke nods. “Right. Good. Practice. I’m going to help these two on their taijutsu.”

For the rest of the day, Sakura throws herself in Kakashi’s lessons, knowing this is her weak point, and Naruto’s so distracted she doesn’t do half bad. Sasuke practices by himself, and between concentrating on focusing so much chakra into his hand and keeping his Sharingan for so many hours at once, it’s no surprise that he passes out from exhaustion.

Kakashi gets him to the apartment by carrying him over the back, Naruto and Sakura trailing after them, and seeing someone unconscious has never been so satisfying.

 

 

It takes Sasuke a month to abruptly come alive again, and that’s when everything hurts.

Naruto’s here, even though Sakura isn’t, and by this point the two of them are practically living with him. And this is probably a good thing, because he just fell backwards, through the not latched bathroom door, and landed his hand straight on a straight shuriken either he or Sakura must have left on the floor. Though he doesn’t remember actually doing it, he must have shouted, because Naruto’s there in a second, toothbrush still in his mouth.

For a moment, he just stands there, staring. “What the fuck did you do?” he asks finally, coming over to drop next to Sasuke and take the shuriken out of his hand, because two of the points are actually stuck into his skin. “This isn’t how I wanted to hear your voice for the first time in weeks, you know.”

That's when he notices that his friend still has that ridiculous hat on his head, the one that’s some sort of panda or other kind of bear, that Iruka bought him when he was eleven and he just never got rid of, and suddenly Sasuke starts laughing. His hand is bleeding, and everything hurts, and Naruto leaps back as if burned, and Sasuke doesn’t even get  why he’s doing this. It’s not funny, nothing about this is funny, he sees this every day, and also his hand really, really fucking hurts.

“Did you hit your head, too?” his friend asks, eyes wide. “Do I need to call Kakashi?”

He shakes his head, and finally quiets only to have another fit a moment later. Blood drips to the floor. He laughs to the point of tears despite the pain because hand injuries hurt worse than most, and next thing he knows, he’s actually crying.

All he wanted to do was to see what the Mangekyo Sharingan looked like, curiosity finally getting the best of him, but the moment he caught sight of himself in the mirror, reality hit him. Itachi is gone. Sasuke’s the last of his clan. His clan was mostly made of idiots, but they had a kekkei genkai, and now the only holders of it are him, and someone who can’t pass it on. He’s the only Uchiha left, and he watched his brother die blind in a hospital bed because of something unrelated to a mission when Itachi deserved so much better to that.

He wasn’t even aware Naruto left until more disinfectant than necessary gets dumped on his hand. “Me and you and Sakura have to become chuunin in December, remember?” he says, winding the bandage around Sasuke’s hand. “No snapping on me now. It takes a three man team to get in. How can I become Hokage without that?”

When he was younger, he always assumed the day his family was killed was going to be the worst day of his life. Watching Itachi stab their dad left one hell of an impression, after all. But no. No, this definitely beats that out. It’s not fair, but his brother was more a parent than either of their actual parents. This is like losing his entire family all over again, except even worse.

“He’s gone. He’s dead.” It’s the first time he’s actually said it out loud, Sasuke realizes. “He’s not coming back.”

The uncomfortable look Naruto gives him comes complete with a scrunched forehead and narrowed eyes. “Yeah,” he says, and pulls Sasuke up by the shirt. “Now put on something else, ‘cause we gotta go, or even Kakashi’s going to get there before us there, and that’s embarrassing.”

There’s blood on his shirt when he changes, and he makes sure to turn it inside out before throwing it in the hamper because one of Sakura’s dresses is in their too. _How have you put up with me?_ he wants to ask, but he already knows what their answer will be, and keeps the question to himself.

 

 

After Kakashi registers his team up for the chuunin exam, a very angry Iruka drags him outside. “What are you doing, signing them up this early?” he asks, crossing his arms. “They aren’t ready.”

“Yes, they are, actually,” Kakashi says, not wanting to give an explanation but figuring he should as this man single-handedly raised one of them. “Even Naruto. I know you don’t want to put him in harm’s way, but -”

“I’ve been looking after that kid for the past ten years. The other two have been over my house consistently for the last few,” Iruka cuts in. “Naruto doesn’t have the maturity level for this kind of test. Sakura’s parents are civilians, how prepared do you think she’s going to be after six months of missions? Two of which were stuck inside Konoha? And _Sasuke_? Really? He was close enough to not even becoming a genin, and that was before what happened with Itachi.”

Kakashi waits for the other man to get everything out before continuing. “Naruto’s fifteen, Iruka, he’s not a kid anymore,” he says. “He can work as part of the team just as well as the other two, and he’s more of an adult than you’re giving him credit for, even if he naive. But he’s a shinobi, if it’s not now, then it’s June for the next test. At least this one’s in Konoha. Sakura’s brilliant, she’s a quick learner, she’s too levelheaded to freeze up. And Sasuke? It’ll do him some good.”

“ _Do him some good?_ Are you even listening to -”

“He talked to me for the first time in a month yesterday. He needs something to focus on.” Iruka abruptly shuts his mouth. “Itachi trained him well, he’s been good enough to be a chuunin for years. I genuinely believe Sakura and Naruto have what it takes, too. They’re getting the contracts.”

When Kakashi walks away to meet up with his team, Iruka doesn’t stop him. Everything he said, he meant, and unless something goes drastically wrong, he knows his team will make it.

 

 

“Iruka glared at this thing like he was trying to set it on fire with his eyes,” Naruto says as he takes a seat on the couch he’s been crashing on for weeks between Sakura and the armrest. “I think he doesn’t want me to do it. It’s not like I’m an adult or anything.”

With a noise of exasperation, she says, “At least he’s not like Ino. I ran into her on my way back, and she had the audacity to tell me I shouldn’t even bother showing up because it’s not like I’ll ever make it.”

Apparently she and Ino stopped being friends years ago over some guy the year ahead of them, which Naruto already doesn’t get, but what he really doesn’t understand is how Sakura _clearly_ doesn’t care about the kid anymore and the two girls still hate each other. “Maybe you’ll get her in the tournament round,” Naruto says. “You’re definitely good enough to kick her ass by now. Right, Sasuke?”

“The Yamanaka family has one real move, and it isn’t all that hard to dodge,” Sasuke says, glancing at Sakura, who glances at him the moment he’s not looking, and Naruto’s almost to the point of locking them in a closet because this is just annoying. “Make sure you’re fast. I can help you with your speed if you want.”

“You know who I don’t want to fight?” Naruto says before she can answer, and they both turn to him. “That Shino guy. Bugs should be kept out of a fight. They’re just ick.”

Sakura shivers. “Don’t remind me. I got literal nightmares from that end of the year sparring test he did against Chouji when we were thirteen.”

Some jutsu are really gross, no way around it, but Shino’s has to win the award for giving people the creeps. Naruto thinks he’d probably lose that fight just on the grounds of running away before all those freaky little legs could swarm him. “Chouji’s going to be in it, too,” he says. “Same with Kiba. I don’t want to beat up Akamaru. That’s animal cruelty.”

“Keep saying that when adorable little Akamaru has his teeth at your throat,” Sasuke says, and signs his name. “The chuunin exams are supposed to test gathering intelligence, teamwork, stealth, trustworthiness, and your individual skill. Kakashi’s gone so much about teamwork that I’m guessing that’s one of the more important ones.”

“At least we’ve got that down,” Sakura says, and knocks her elbow against his before signing her name too. Her signature is bubbly and neat. “Same with trustworthiness, probably. That doesn’t sound too difficult. I think the others just depend.”

Even if Iruka doesn’t want Naruto to go, his teammate are right; they’ve got this down. As he signs his name in his own illegible handwriting, he says, “We've got two months to train. What should be do? Do you think Kakashi’s got anything for us?”

Sakura shrugs. Sasuke says, “Already talked to him. He’s asking for more B-rank missions.”

Last time they went on a B-rank mission, Sasuke almost got himself killed, but Naruto decides against mentioning that. And, well, after Itachi, he doesn’t really want to think about his friend dying. Naruto never ever thought in a million years anyone could ever get a drop on the guy, and it’s still hard to believe he’s just gone. “Learning by experience,” he says. “I’ll take it. What do we do with these?”

“Give them to Kakashi tomorrow.”

In two months, they’re all going to be chuunin, which is one step closer to being Hokage, and one step closer to people realizing their team of the three kids on the lowest part of the social food chain is actually pretty great.

 

 

It’s two weeks before the chuunin exams, and they’re on their third B-ranked mission on the border of the Land of Fire and the Land of Rivers, protecting trade routes from shinobi-for-hire. They’ve been out here for two days, in the rain and the cold, and Sakura misses the cell phone she left on Sasuke’s bed with a dull sort of longing. Sure, she’s been on missions before, and a shinobi can’t use his or her civilian phone while on duty, but this is the first one that’s felt so old fashion.

She firmly blames that on that yesterday when she had to bath in a river because there isn’t a sign of civilization for miles. And that she had to use normal, cheap hotel soap for her hair because shampoo has too strong a smell and also takes too long to clean out. It was a horrible experience, and one she’s going to have to repeat for the next week. Hopefully her hair will survive the torment.

“My nutrient bar tastes like cardboard,” Naruto says from across her where he leans back against a tree, legs crossed in front of him. “Is that normal? Seriously, try it.”

“They aren’t made to taste good, idiot,” Sasuke says, and fiddles with the wrapper on his without opening it. Sakura takes the one Naruto’s holding out.

Though it’s November, and therefore freezing, they aren’t allowed to light a fire, but the moon is so bright she can see him clearly anyway, and he looks completely washed of color. He’s too pretty to be a boy, Ino said once just because everyone wanted an excuse not to like him, but that doesn’t mean every girl didn’t sneak looks at him anyway. Sakura’s just the only one whoever had the chance to talk to him. It’s only over past month or so once he started coming back to himself that she’s realizing she’s not the only one stealing glancing.

Alternatively, in the moonlight, Naruto is practically a sliver of leftover daylight, because like her, he was born with a natural disadvantage. And like her, they’re stuck wearing hats to cover their hair for most of the mission. Yellow and pink are so not conducive to camouflage.

She takes a bite of Naruto’s nutrient bar, expecting to find him exaggerating, and has to stop herself from gagging. “Oh god,” she says. “Sasuke, don’t make judgement calls until you’ve actually tried it. This is...I don’t even know. This is no.”

Rolling his eyes, he takes it when she hands it to him, and bites into it. The pinched look he gets on his face as a result is worse than the one he made when Mom got him take cough syrup for a cold back when they were twelve. “That's disgusting,” he says. “It has to be expired or something. Where’s the expiration date on these things?”

Though it’s hard to see, Sakura moves in close to him as he smooths out the label to find it. He spots it first and says, “It’s not supposed to for another two _years_.”

She looks down at the unopened on in her hand, horrified at the idea that they’re all going to taste like something dying in her mouth. “Welcome to the life of a shinobi,” she says. “We’ll set you back a hundred years, and make you miserable with food made from your school textbooks. At least I know this job’ll do wonders for my figure.”

Before either of the boys can answer, Kakashi returns from scouting the area. “I found them,” he says. “Clear the camp. We’re on.”

Within ten minutes, they have everything collapsed and set, ready to go, and in the light of the moon, Sasuke’s red eyes shine bright.

 

 

Both the boys end up injured, because they’re stupid, and Sasuke still has some instant reflex about protecting her while Naruto has an instant reflex about protecting him. It doesn’t help that the shinobi-for-hire numbered roughly the equivalent to an average militia. “I want to become a medical-nin,” she says, looking up at Kakashi as she helps stick butterfly stitches to Sasuke’s temple. “But, one that can fight. So I can protect myself, and keep these two from bleeding out.”

The smile Sasuke gives her is small, but real, as Kakashi says, “So like the medical-nin assigned to teams during the war.”

“Yeah, exactly like that,” she says. “It’s a good system, right?”

“And it would be a perfect excuse not to go to the hospital ever again,” Sasuke says, and she frowns. “What? I don’t like them.”

No, he wouldn’t, but hospitals are still necessary. Rather than argue with him, she asks, “Do you know anything, Kakashi?”

Shaking his head, he answers, “I wasn’t the medic. I’ll see if I can find you someone willing to tutor you on your off days at the hospital if you’re serious. Right now just keep him awake. I’m going to set up the tents, and then I want to check your head.”

Naruto’s already out cold, too tired to stay awake. After Kakashi walks back, she turns to Sasuke, and uses a wet cloth to get the blood off his face, getting closer to him than normal. That’s when she notices that he’s staring at some point over his shoulder, and he’s - well, she never thought she’d see Uchiha Sasuke of all people blush, but miracles happen.

“We should go somewhere when we get back to Konoha,” she says, and his eyes snap back to her, clearer than before. “You know, just the two of us. Like as a date.”

There’s a short pause, and for a second, she panics, thinking she read the signals all wrong, but then he says, “You’re serious? With me?”

“I’ve liked you for the past two years,” she answers, “so yes, I mean with you.”

He smiles again, and reaches up to move her hair out of her face. “Can we go somewhere with real food? I’m sick of cardboard.”

She nods and smiles back, but bigger. “Yeah. Yeah, Sasuke, we can.”

 

 

When Naruto finds out about their date, he laughs. “ _Finally_ ,” he says once he’s got himself under control. “I’ve been dealing with your dancing around each other bullshit for years.”

Kakashi’s reaction is pretty much the same, and then Mom goes on about how adorable they are, and Dad asks if he needs to give Sasuke the protection talk. It’s just about as embarrassing as it can get, and by the time Sakura meets up with him at the restaurant, her cheeks are still pink.

“My dad made a pun relating ninjutsu to protective sex, and I’m scarred for life,” she says when he asks what’s wrong, and pulls her sweater tighter around herself. Considering the weather, maybe the dress was a miscalculation. “Let’s just go so I can purge that conversation from my mind forever.”

If it were anyone else, she’d worry about embarrassing herself further, but this is Sasuke. Her dad’s woken them up after he and Naruto fell asleep in her room enough times that things aren’t awkward. This might be the first time he's made a pun, but it isn't the first time he threatened to give The Talk. “Do I even want to know?” he asks as they enter.

“No,” she says. “You really don’t. Table for two, please.”

The hostess nods, barely glancing at them, and says, “This way, please.”

Somehow, they manage to luck out and end up seated by the window. Neither of them have ever been on a date before, and from the way his fingers keep twitching, she can tell he’s just as out of his depth as she is. Are they supposed to act differently? Talk about different things than usual? Hold hands? For someone so love story obsessed as a kid, she sure is clueless, she realizes, and it’s probably their fault.

But then Sasuke asks, “So, were you serious about being a medical-nin? Because that’s actually really useful,” and everything falls into place.

 

 

They wander around Konoha for a while after dinner despite the cold, and eventually end up on the branch of a tree overlooking his neighborhood. “That was fun,” Sakura says. “We should get some more in before I start training to be a medical-nin and lose all my time off.”

Sasuke says, “Yeah, okay,” and when she leans over to kiss him, he kisses back.

Ten days from now they’ll enter the chuunin exams and their lives will go a little sideways for a while, but for now she has him here, in a tree, and for a moment, everything feels perfect.

 

 

A week and a half probably isn’t enough time to make the leap from “dating” to “whatever the word for this is,” but they’ve been friends together long enough, and she’s been sleeping in bed with him for long enough, that the transition makes itself. Really the only thing that changes is that before splitting with them outside the Academy, where the first step of the chuunin exams is going to be held, Kakashi has the chance to say, “Remember, no sex during round two if you don’t want to die, kids.”

Of course, Naruto thinks it’s hysterical. Sakura’s cheeks go the same color as her hair. Sasuke just wants to sink into the floor from embarrassment. At the same time, he wonders what Itachi would say, seeing him now. His brother pestered him for a year to ask her out. Instead she’s the one who asked him. Itachi would’ve found that hilarious, and probably thrown in an “I told you” somewhere, too.

And like Itachi, Sasuke and his teammates are about to enter the chuunin exams six months after becoming genin. This was always a goal, and now the opportunity is here. On one hand, he’s happy about it and all, but on the other, it still feels half hollow knowing he won’t have his brother to go back to whether he advances or not.

No, when he advances. He has to, and it’s a feeling that has nothing to do with that little voice in the back of his head that sounds an awful lot like his dad telling him how at this rate he’s just going to be a waste of space. How he’s not living up to the Uchiha name, and he probably won’t even develop the Sharingan like a true member of the clan.

That little voice goes silent after the crash. They rush forward together, and find a team from the year ahead of them clearly allowing themselves to get the shit beaten out of them, and a fake door. “Just let us up a level,” he says, irritated, and thinks these guys guarding the door are probably examiners. Itachi complained about how annoying the examiners were after his test. “Your genjutsu is obvious.”

“He’s right,” Sakura says. “This is only the second floor.”

A ripple of “oh” runs through the crowd behind them, and some girl says, “How the hell did that kid figure it out? He looks, like, fifteen,” and a voice Sasuke recognizes as Shikamaru’s answers, “That’s Uchiha Sasuke. Of course he can see through some C-rank genjutsu.”

For once, no one calls out about his Sharingan being “cheating.”

As he enters through the proper door, Sakura pressed tight against him on his right, and Naruto hovering near her side, Sasuke tells himself they can actually pull this off.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> December means the chuunin exams which mean Team Seven is so screwed.

Passing the first portion of the test had been hard enough, and the only reason Naruto figured it out was because Sasuke basically gave him the heads up weeks ago. In comparison, the so-called Forest of Death actually looks easy. Trustworthiness, endurance, and teamwork. Basically, what he’s good at.

Though, he could’ve done without the crazy examiner lady with the whacky purple hair. She was literally _smiling_ when she handed out the contracts that potentially meant signing their death warrants.

Everyone is given separate entrances, and the first thing Team Seven does is climb to the top of a tree to strategize. “I checked around at how everyone was was gathering information during the first test,” Sasuke says, which sucks, because it means he probably saw that Naruto got all of one answer from sneaking glances at Hinata’s paper. “That gave me a pretty good idea of who to avoid if we want to get to the tower quickly. We’re going nowhere near those Suna-nin siblings.”

“There were some Ame-nin in there that looked useless,” Sakura says. “Or we could find someone who fights mainly with genjutsu. That can’t fool your Sharingan, and I can cancel it out for me and Naruto.”

Genjutsu is Naruto’s weakness by a longshot, but that’s better than facing off someone like that Lee guy. “What’re we going to do if they have the same scroll as us?” he asks.

His friends glance at each other before Sasuke answers, “We keep it on the off chance we lose one. If we find another team first, we attack. I’ll record whatever jutsu I can. We’ll understand the different types of shinobi better if we find a pattern in their techniques.”

“And we should try our hardest not to split up,” Sakura adds. “That’s just stupid.”

“We should stay away from Team Ten, too,” Naruto says, and his friends turn to look at him. “What? Iruka was always going on about insanely smart Shikamaru is, and how he should’ve tied with the two of you on written, and that his strategy scores were ‘outstanding.’ Living with the teacher has some advantages, you know.”

“Okay, no Shikamaru,” Sasuke says, and stands. “We should go before we waste all our daylight.”

December means it gets dark early, and the first exam didn’t even start until eleven and lasted three hours. It should be like four now. Naruto gives it like another hour before night hits.

Together, they head down the tree, and despite what he thought, the sun is already sinking below the line of the trees.

 

 

Their first battle, and first win, just sort of _happens_. Three Getsu-nin probably not much older than they are try for an ambush, but Sasuke feels their chakra signature first, and then things derail from there.

Naruto creates enough clones that their enemy is forced to go all-out, which gives Sasuke more to catch with his Sharingan. Then he traps two in a genjutsu, Naruto focuses the clones left on the one that’s free, and Sakura cuts the packs. At the second, the scroll literally falls into her hand. _This is too easy_ , he thinks, followed by a, _Fuck it_ , as Sasuke traps the last one, too, and they have a chance to leave.

Apparently all those B-rank missions paid off.

Unfortunately, their luck runs out about there. “Same scroll,” Sakura says, out of breath, as she holds it up. “Well, that was a pointless waste of chakra. How’re the two of you feeling?”

With Naruto’s chakra reserves, that was nothing. Like, that’s the only good thing to come out of being a Jinchuriki. Everything else sucks. “I could do that all day,” he answers, and Sasuke rolls his eyes.

“I’m good,” he says. “A fight that short isn’t enough to do me in, Sakura.”

She smiles slightly, and touches his arm before turning around. “How long is that genjutsu supposed to last?”

He shrugs. “I picked it up when we had that mission in the Land of the Lightning,” he answers. “No idea. We should keep moving.”

The words are barely out of his mouth before the giant snake comes out of nowhere, and Naruto doesn’t have time to react when the thing’s tail lashes out towards him. One second he’s in the clearing, the next, twenty feet away against a tree. Sakura shouts his name, but the snake gets too him first.

Before it swallows him, he sees the man rushing Sasuke’s side. Then it’s all teeth and saliva, and darkness, and panic as Naruto tries to think his way out of this one.

 

 

This is how it happens:

Sakura knocks her boyfriend out of the way, and they tumble down together in a tangle of limbs and bruises, but get up quick enough to dodge the second attack. Naruto’s already gone, and he’s going to come back, she knows it. But that doesn’t help right now, because she freezes up the moment the man makes eye contact with her, a fear she recognizes as killing intent seeping so deep into her she forgets how to move.

For some reason, it doesn’t work on Sasuke. Their enemy is still concentrated on her when Sasuke comes up from behind him, and though he evades the majority of the attack, the Chidori still hits him hard in the side.

That’s when she notices Sasuke’s arm is bleeding, and realizes he must have hurt himself to get out of what she’s trapped in now.

“Sorry about this,” he says, suddenly in front of her, and cuts into her shoulder before shoving her out of the way of a second attack. This is the first time in a while she feels genuinely useless.

Too late she realizes she shouldn’t have tried to join in, because the man abruptly changes focus from Sasuke to her, and his attack comes too fast for her to avoid. Sasuke gets between them at the last second, ready to pull her out of the way, but he’s not quick enough, either. The teeth sink into his neck before either of them can do anything.

Right then Naruto comes back, covered in blood and god knows what else, but Sasuke’s already on the ground clutching at his shoulder while his body seizes. In the end, the only reason they live is because the man only stays around long enough to knock Naruto out before leaving on his own.

She’s left mostly unharmed, which is simultaneously good and insulting.

When Sasuke finally faints, too, body still and eyes closed, she knows that if they’re going to survive the night, then she’s going to have to be the one to saving them.

 

 

Just because nothing good can ever come out of her luck, the attack needs to happen in the early morning after hours of no sleep, and tending her two ruined teammates. Now some stupid fucking Oto-nin has her hand tangled in her hair, saying, “Maybe if you spent as much time training as you do on looking soft and pretty for your boyfriend, you’d actually have a chance,” and Sakura decides she’s sick of being underestimated by everyone outside of her team.

Yeah, so her long hair is for Sasuke, because she noticed he looked at it a lot, and they weren’t genin yet, so what was the point of cutting it? But her attachment to it doesn’t outweigh her attachment to _him_ , to Naruto, so she pulls out a kunai, ignoring the girl’s laugh and how she says, “Oh sweetheart, do you really think that’s going to work on me?”

Without giving her time to realize the real point behind it, Sakura brings up the kunai and cuts away her own hair. “What the -” the girl starts, but Sakura turns abruptly, faster than people give her credit for because she’s been taught well, dammit, and drives the triangular blade right into her opponent’s thigh.

“Sorry, _sweetheart_ ,” she says, voice dry, as she sweeps out her leg to knock the girl off balance, “but the world doesn’t revolve around you.”

The boy teammates are on her quick enough, but she makes her hand signs as she evades, keeping it simple. Any of the genjutsu techniques Kakashi and Sasuke taught her can be saved for last.

Twice, they fall for it, and third, she comes from the air like Naruto has a tendency to do. When the boy attacks, she lets it hit, making sure to avoid any serious damage, and drives her kunai through his arm, breaking the brace. What would her friends do next? Well, use taijutsu, since it’s at such close quarters, but that’s her weak point. Still, there’s really nothing to lose, she thinks, and hits him hard on the nose.

It cracks. Audibly.

He swears loudly and hits her harder right on the shoulder Sasuke injured early, forcing her backwards. She lands next to Lee, whose reasoning for protecting her she still doesn’t understand, and nearly falls trying to stand up. It really doesn’t help that the other two are back on their feet, too.

There’s a moment where she thinks, _We’re all going to die_ , _and it’s my fault_ , but then Ino’s voice calls out, “Stay away from her!” and Sakura is just so done with being saved.

“Keep behind me,” Neji tries to tell her, because he and Tenten showed up looking for Lee. But no, Sakura is better than that, she’s better than _Keep behind me_ , so she straightens her back and prepares to strike with the rest of them.

She doesn’t get the chance. Following what happens next is hard, but it involves Sasuke covered in squiggles and the Mangekyo, and she wraps her arms around him without thinking of the consequences.

“Please,” she says. “Stop.”

Something is deeply, deeply wrong, and when all his weight lands on her, the best she can do is hold them both upright and hope that Kakashi knows what’s going on.

 

 

Because of the Oto-nin, they now have both types of scrolls, but that doesn’t make getting back any easier. Running into Kabuto is a lucky break Sasuke wasn’t expecting, because the fever from the mark persists.

Considering everything short of taijutsu makes the weird mark on his neck burn, he’s completely useless during the fight they end up in right before they make it to the tower, and their opponents actually land a few hits. For the last half mile, he ends up with one arm around Sakura, and the other around Naruto as they all stumble in together. They split with Kabuto there, and Naruto pushes through their door.

It’s Iruka who meets them, and the hug he gives Naruto is nothing short of coddling. “We need to see Kakashi. Now,” Sakura says immediately after he informs them they made it through. Her short hair sways in the breeze coming through the door, and Sasuke decided he liked it hours ago. Then again, he’d like her with anything.

If Itachi could see him now, Sasuke would never live this down.

“He should be here waiting for you,” Iruka says. “If not, we were allowed cell phones, so I can call. What’s wrong? If you’re injured, you need to go to the hospital.”

“I’m not injured,” Sasuke says. “It’s just chakra depletion. I have to ask him something about the Sharingan.”

He says it with a straight face, gives Iruka no chance not to believe him. And though he looks to Naruto, as if waiting for him to rat Sasuke out, his friend just shrugs. “All right,” Iruka says after a moment. “Follow me. We’ll find him together.”

As turns to lead the way, Sakura sighs. “We did it,” she says with a tired smile, and kisses his cheek. “Just one more round.”

In front of them Naruto babbles on about a heavily edited version of their time in the Forest of Death, and Sasuke really hopes Kakashi can fix whatever’s wrong with him. There’s one round left, and he refuses to let this be the end already.

 

 

It’s not sitting in the giant circle that freaks him out, or even the description of what the mark is. No, what gets to Sasuke is how, well, _cautiously_ Kakashi is treating him. Like he’s afraid Sasuke’s about to spontaneously combust, or, worse, snap.

“This is going to hurt it,” Kakashi tells him.

“I don’t care,” he answers, and means it.

As it turns out, it does hurt, and he cares a lot.

 

 

Two days later, and it’s prelims. There wasn’t supposed to be prelims, but too many teams passed, so now they’re stuck with it. And since Sasuke was supposed to be in the hospital for another week, Naruto’s totally not surprised when it’s his friend’s name that gets called first. Against an Otogakure guy. Aka, one of the ones who attacked Sakura, alone. What jerks.

Showing affection in front of a whole room of shinobi looking for your weakness is a bad idea, even Naruto knows that, and the most Sasuke does is give Sakura’s hand a squeeze before saying, “I’ll stick to taijutsu.”

Naruto’s seen his friend fight while running on empty before, so he’s really not worried. But he’s also never seen Sakura all that worried about Sasuke, because he can take care of himself, so the fact that she’s biting the side of her thumbnail and watching the stare down below them with wide eyes is a little unnerving. It doesn’t help that Kakashi’s whole body’s super tense, too, like he’s ready to go and stop it if he has to. Which one would he be stopping, though?

“He’ll be fine,” Naruto says, knocking elbows with Sakura. “Right?”

All she does is nod, and keep staring. Awesome. Isn’t he just such a great friend?

Then the whistle blows, and the match starts. The Oto-nin doesn’t know what hit him when Sasuke comes at him with what looks like Lee’s moves, but not an exact copy at the same time. “Oh, god,” Sakura says once the other guy ends up on the floor, and she sinks to the ground. “That was quick.”

Sasuke’s unsteady on his feet when he comes back up, and his face even paler than usual. “You look like you’re about to fall asleep,” Naruto says as his friend joins Sakura on the floor at the edge of the balcony, laying his head on her shoulder. “That fight was five minutes, there’s no way it wiped you out this much.”

“I’m not even supposed to be out of bed, idiot,” Sasuke mumbles. “Just shut up and watch the match.”

The next match is between the girl Suna-nin, and Tenten, and Tenten gets her ass kicked in even less than five minutes. Even if all the matches end up being this short, there are so many people here that Naruto can already tell this is going to be a long day.

 

 

When Sakura was twelve, Sasuke gave her an umbrella and expected not to get it back. The moment she came to school the next day with it in hand, she severed ties with Ino and her old friends, and entered a life of social ruination with her future teammates. Giving back that umbrella was the best decision of her life, because right now, looking at Ino standing across from her on the floor of this makeshift stadium, Sakura realizes how little she actually cares. _This_ fight has nothing to do with their _old_ fight, it has nothing to do with Ino’s opinion of her, it has nothing to do with Ino at all.

This fight is about Sakura proving to herself that she really deserves to be here.

She can see it, too, the moment where Ino figures out Sakura doesn’t care one way or the other about what she thinks. “I was the first person to help you train, remember, Sakura?” she says. “I know how you fight.”

As she settles into a starter stance, Sakura tells her, “I’m not the same little girl anymore. You won’t scare me away.”

The jonin calls the fight’s start, and this is where Ino goes wrong: Sakura doesn’t have a shinobi family to drill a specific type of movement into her. For the past six months, she’s been learning with Kakashi and the boys, which forced her movement to change from those days together years ago.

In the end, she gets the other girl with a C-rank genjutsu Sasuke taught her after their mission with Tazuna, once Ino gets stuck in place because she tried for her body switch without anticipating how fast Sakura really was.

“Winner, Haruno Sakura,” the jonin says, and Naruto whoops in happiness. When she looks up, she sees Sasuke smiling, still slumped against the banister, By the end of this exam, she might have to fight both of them.

She kisses him once she gets back to the balcony, no longer having to worry about opponents picking them as each other’s weaknesses for a genjutsu or whatever, and he slips his arm around her. Though she probably won’t win, the idea of fighting the two of them isn’t one she minds.

 

 

Naruto wins against Kiba by pretending to be Akamaru, which Sasuke has to admit was pretty smart, and they all stumble back to the Haruno residence together. “We all made it into the third round!” Sakura says instead of hello, having by far the most energy out of the three of them. “And I knocked out Ino!”

“That’s nice, dear, we’re very proud of you,” Kizashi says, and kisses the top of his daughter’s head. If Itachi were here, Sasuke would’ve been gotten fingers to his forehead by now, and thinking about that makes his chest ache. “Now, I’m sure all of you want something to eat, right?”

“And showers,” Sakura says. “We all really need showers.”

A shower sounds nice. Though Sasuke didn’t even get any blood on him during his fight, which was probably the easiest but also the most draining, he just wants the smell of hospital disinfectant off of him. Then he wants to sleep a solid six hours until tomorrow, where he’ll meet up with Kakashi and figure out what the hell he’s supposed to do against a guy covered in a shield of sand.

Mebuki said the boys should go first, because Sasuke looks about to fall asleep and Naruto has blood in his hair. After a quick game of rock, paper, scissors, Sasuke wins the bathroom connected to Sakura’s room by playing rock against scissors. That’s when he figures out how to beat Gaara.

For now, he’ll keep it to himself, but tomorrow he’ll talk about it with Kakashi, and hopefully he’ll be able to get through this fight without resorting to the Mangekyo.

 

 

Splitting up his team doesn’t feel like a good idea, but it’s the only one he has. “If you want to work with the Chidori, then I have to be the one to train you,” he says. “You also need to find your limit between the seal and your Sharingan. That’s why I found them different mentors for the next month.”

Though Sasuke frowns, the smudges of his sleeplessness under his eyes have him come across more as tired than disappointed. His idea follows along the same train of thought Kakashi had - focus on taijutsu for speed, and use the Chidori as a thrust attack to break the impenetrable shield. “But I was thinking,” he continues, “that it would probably be safer for me not to get too close. What if I turned the Chidori into a long range attack?”

“A long - I don’t see why not,” Kakashi says. “There’s a form more advanced than the Chidori called Raikiri. It takes more precise chakra control, but it’s a good springboard if you want to adapt your own.”

“Okay,” Sasuke says, activating the Sharingan. “So can I see it?”

His eyes follow every one of Kakashi’s movements with the same intensity that Itachi had, and by the end of the day, Sasuke’s half asleep again from over exerting himself, but at least he has the basics. Soon, Kakashi’s going to have to bring up the subject the kid’s purposely been avoiding, because if the Chidori fails, he does have a last option.

It would be easier if the last option hadn’t developed because he watched his older brother die.

 

 

When Kakashi finally does bring it up, waiting until Sasuke was a good mood from mastering his newly created attack, the reaction is about what he expected.

First, his face just goes white. Then he says, “Lightning’s known to crystallize sand to glass. I’ll be fine.”

While this is true, they both know Gaara’s version is a little more complicated from that. A quick web search revealed a lot of badly covered up news stories about Suna citizens getting murdered dating as far as seven years back that seem connected to the kid. That isn’t normal, even for a shinobi, and this is coming from someone who became one at nine before graduation laws were set in place. Apparently Sunagakure doesn’t take mental stability as seriously as they do in Konoha, or maybe that’s just the special privilege of being the Kazekage’s youngest son.

He tries a different angle. “Gaara isn’t going to be the only opponent you face.”

“Well, I’m not using it on Naruto, and Neji’s not an option. The same goes for the Oto-nin Sakura is facing.” Despite his frustration that Sasuke isn’t understanding the gravity of the situation, Kakashi can’t help but be a bit touched by his team’s faith in each other. “Shikamaru will probably beat Gaara’s sister by, I don’t know, having her knock herself out with her own fan, and the Chidori senbon should take care of any puppets if the third brother wins.” There’s a pause, and he adds, “I’m not going to start going blind because of the chuunin exams.”

“That only happens in overuse,” Kakashi says, and tries not to think about how his friend came back to Konoha with his eyes bandaged. The two of them didn’t work together long, but it was long enough. Itachi deserved better than what he got. “Sasuke, there’s something...off about those three. Because of the seal, you have to finish everything as quick as possible to avoid using it, and you only have a couple shots a day with any form of the Chidori. The Mangekyo Sharingan uses a lot of chakra, but if you’re cornered, it could easily be your one shot at incapacitating your opponent.”

Pressuring his students into anything isn’t a feeling he likes, but this isn’t like Naruto and the Kyuubi; Sasuke has a kekkei genkai as a built in defense system. He also doesn’t have it in him to kill anyone, and he’s about to go against someone who’s been murdering innocent people for years.

Then, to Kakashi’s surprise, Sasuke says, “It’s not just that I don’t want to. I can’t.”

“I’ve seen it activate. That’s not going to work.”

“No, I don’t mean I don’t _have_ it, I mean -” He looks away, takes a deep breath, and says, “Last time I knowingly activated it, I had a panic attack.”

It takes Sasuke a lot to admit a flaw about himself to anyone outside of maybe Sakura - an effect leftover from the days their parents were alive, or at least that’s what Itachi implied. So Sasuke bluntly saying he panicked isn’t good.

Iruka said he wasn’t stable enough to take the exams. While Kakashi still thinks otherwise, he would never say his student is perfectly balanced, either. “It’s going to activate accidentally eventually,” he says. “Keeping control of both that and the seal is going to be difficult.”

“I can handle it,” Sasuke says before pausing again and adding, “Though I guess keeping the seal under control is priority.”

In the end, that’s the important thing, Kakashi thinks. “Okay,” he says. “You should go home for the night. Be back by six tomorrow.”

With a defeated set to his shoulders that he really shouldn’t have after crafting his own jutsu that at the age of fifteen, Sasuke heads home. Maybe it would’ve been better if he kept his mouth shut, Kakashi thinks, and knows it’s not true. Sasuke can survive the chuunin exams without the Mangekyo, sure, but when Orochimaru comes after him again, he’s going to need everything he has.

 

 

Sakura wakes the morning of the third part of the chuunin exam in Sasuke’s bed with his arm casually thrown over her. He’s still asleep, hair messier than usual and blankets pulled up to his mouth. Somewhere in the other part of the apartment, she can hear that Naruto’s already up, a rare occurrence, with the shower running.

As much as she wants to just let her boyfriend sleep, she knows she can’t, so she pokes him in the side. “Wake up, Sasuke,” she says, and he opens his eyes. “G’morning.”

It feels like all the exhaustion of the past month’s suddenly caught up with her at the least opportune time, but she knows she’ll be fine after a shower. Kakashi managed to get her a mentorship with the head medical-nin at the hospital, who’s promised to teach her real medical jutsu, but for the past month focused on using the same techniques as a means to attack. Maybe not as grand as creating a new jutsu or syncing two separate chakra reserves, but the same techniques that can cause a heart to start beating again, or lungs to start breathing, can just as easily stop them, and she’s going to learn both.

This was _such_ a great idea.

“Morning,” he says, and sits up, which of course moves the blankets and lets in all the cold air. Okay, that’s so enough to wake her up. Winter just needs to leave. “Ready for your first fight?”

The shower stops. “I’ll be ready after I eat,” she answers, and gives him a quick kiss before rolling off the bed. “You go first. I’ll make breakfast so Naruto doesn’t accidentally burn the building down trying.”

Before she can make it even a foot away from the bed, Sasuke gets his arms around her, pulling her back. “Be careful, okay?” he says in her hair. “I doubt Neji’s going to fight to kill, but the Oto-nin -”

“Just worry about yourself, Sasuke,” she says, turning to her head to look at him. “ _You’re_ the one fighting the murderous Kazekage's son, remember? And _last_? Which means it’s the most anticipated fight? So focus on that.”

“You’re right,” he says, and waits a moment before letting go. “I’ll keep the shower quick.”

She kisses him again before leaving, trying to pour as much _don’t you dare get hurt, Uchiha Sasuke, because I won’t forgive you_ into it as she can. When she glances before her as she leaves, watching him close the bathroom door, she thinks he didn’t get the message.

 

 

Compared to her opponent, Sakura looks like a doll, but considering that Naruto just beat the former Rookie of the Year, most of the people here aren’t making any assumptions. Sasuke doesn’t quite fall into that group but close enough - he knows Sakura is going to win, but that doesn’t make him any less nervous. Her opponent already almost killed her in the Forest of Death. While Sasuke doesn’t remember much of what happened in that time frame, he still saw the aftermath, and she was injured when he came back to himself. He’s really not up to seeing her like that ever again.

But then the battle starts, and her opponent is just too clearly outclassed for Sasuke to worry anymore. Not that the guy isn’t good or anything. He’s actually better than Sakura, with Otogakure specific jutsu, but she’s just smarter, and that goes a lot way in a fight.

She tires him out first, throwing kunai with explosive tags attached at him to focus him to keep running around the arena. Because of the televisions hung throughout the area displaying closeups, the entire audience can see exactly how annoyed the Oto-nin is. The fifth tag explodes immediately after the fourth, covering the arena in smoke, and when he swears, people actually laugh. At the same moment, though, Sakura jumps through the smoke to make her attack, and it takes real effort not to throw for Sasuke himself at the railing to try and get a closer look. All the cameras can pick up is a flurry of movement, and more ash and dirt picking up in whatever struggle is going on.

The smoke clears as the Oto-nin shouts in nothing short of agony, followed by Sakura’s scream. Sasuke’s hands are clenched so hard his nails are digging into his skin, but when everything is visible again, he sees Sakura clutching a bleeding arm, but otherwise all right, and her opponent on the ground twitching. All his major attacks were contact based - it makes sense she would use the smoke as a way to get at him with one hit, even if it made her blind too. And he doesn’t get medical jutsu, really, but from what she’s told him, Sasuke’s guessing she did something to his nervous system.

“Winner, Haruno Sakura,” the jonin calls as the medics run out to collect her opponent, and when everyone cheers, Sasuke and Naruto’s voices are two of the loudest.

 

 

While Naruto and Sakura’s fights were covered by cheers, sounds of sympathy, and talks of speculation throughout them, Sasuke’s is watched in complete silence. For the Suna-nin, or anyone else who knows about Gaara, the silence is probably due to wondering how long it’ll take the Konoha kid to die; for the other Konoha genin Sasuke’s age, it’s them just realizing that Rookie of the Year _really_ wasn’t an exaggeration; for the Anbu and jonin, like Kakashi, it’s the eerie similarity between how Sasuke fights, and how Itachi did.

Though Sasuke doesn’t look as much like his brother as he used to, Kakashi still feels like he’s watching a ghost.

Cameras already do weird things to eyes, but for Sasuke, it means the Sharingan looks like it’s glowing. Outside of that five minute fight for prelims when he was dead exhausted, Kakashi’s never actually seen Sasuke fight in single combat before, but without having to incorporate anyone into his attacks, he has the same cat-like movements of his brother. All he’s wearing is some plain green t-shirt with no fan, but even without his family name on screen, anyone with any knowledge of shinobi clans could see exactly what he is. Against his better judgement, Kakashi can’t help but think there has to be more than a few people in this audience who aren’t looking at that fact all that fondly.

What Gaara has is an ultimate defense, but he’s too stationary, and Sasuke is faster than the outer layer of sand. Lightning is faster than both of them, though, and when he sends the Chidori in a straight attack from halfway across the arena, not even the inner layer has enough time to properly react.

That should have been the end of the fight.

Instead, this is where everything goes wrong, and these exams really need better screening.

 

 

When Naruto finally catches up to his friends, Sasuke is curled up on the branch with black lines across his face as he clutched his shoulder, and Sakura’s pinned to a tree. He doesn’t even have a chance to ask what happened before Sasuke lashes out, grabbing the hem of his shirt, and says, “He’s a Jinchuriki. Save Sakura. I overused my chakra so this happened, but if he forces you to go overboard, I should have enough to use the Mangekyo.”

The thing Gaara’s turning into roars. “Then stay awake,” Naruto tells him, and runs off without waiting for a reply. Meeting another Jinchuriki is normally an opportunity he would jump on as a chance to talk to someone else like him, but Gaara’s a little too murder happy, and Sasuke and Sakura come first.

He summons just the way Jiraiya taught him, figuring it’ll take something big to defeat something big, and imagines teeth and claws and nine tails. If he has to take Gaara down, he might as well do it honestly.

Except, then -

Gaara abruptly downsizes, and ends up on the floor, staring at his hands in confusion. Naruto finds Sasuke instantly, holding Sakura up on the branch of the tree, and completely unconscious. Well, he thinks. At least this gives him an opportunity to talk.

“My friend’s a Uchiha,” he tells Gaara once the frog is no longer a fox and he’s back on the ground. “He doesn’t really know what he’s doing, uh, ever, but I guess I beat you up enough that he was able to get inside your seal, ‘cause the Sharingan lets him control people like us.”

Suddenly, saying that allowed, _seeing_ it, makes Naruto realize exactly how creepy it is that Sasuke can stop one of his chakra reserves like this. And it seems to have really worked on Gaara, because not a single grain of sand is lifting up anywhere.

“What do you mean?” he says. “People like ‘us?’”

Naruto sighs, sits down, and gets explaining.

By the time Kakashi and the others come, Naruto thinks he might actually have made a difference. Any victory in that quickly turns sour when he turns to look for his friends, and finds them both unconscious, carried away, because he wasn’t fast enough to save them. 


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which results are favorable, and still no one's happy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uh, OC warning? He's only there for like ten seconds, but I needed an Itachi stand-in.

When Sasuke wakes up, his medic refuses to give him details about what’s going on outside of saying his friends are alive, but he can still see Konoha from his window. The Academy is badly damaged, as are the Council building and hospital. Because no one knew what the seal was going to do with him, he got shoved into a single room anyway. As it turns out, the worst it gave him was a seizure. Though he knows it could have been significantly more severe, this is still sucks, because he isn’t even allowed to see Kakashi until a full day after he’s conscious.

The second time he wakes, it’s to his girlfriend sleeping on the bedside, Kakashi’s voice coming from outside the room along with one he recognizes as his medic’s, and Naruto staring at him. His friend’s hug catches him off guard, because he might be on the affectionate side with Sakura, but Sasuke definitely isn’t a touchy person, and Naruto knows this.

“Sorry,” he says, not letting go, and Sasuke reluctantly hugs him back. “They refused to tell us any details and last time that happened - well, you know.”

Oh. Last time that happened must have been with Itachi. Because of his shutdown in the aftermath, Sasuke never actually had the time to think about how that must have gone down with his friends. “Yeah, I know,” he says, and forces out the image of his brother in a different bed with his eyes bandaged and hooked up to all those wires, or sitting in the waiting room covered in blood six years ago. There’s a reason he hates this place. “I’m guessing it worked if you’re here.”

Using the Mangekyo had been just as horrifying as he thought it would be, but it looked like Naruto was about to lose it and Sakura had just coughed up blood. What Sasuke did was reacting more than thinking, but actually getting inside someone’s conscience like that was...well, something he’d rather not repeat. He felt violated, and like he was violating, and Gaara had _freaked_ , which was only a tenth of the reaction the trailed-beast gave. Even without his physical body, the killing intent coming off that thing made Sasuke feel like he was getting ripped to pieces.

Maybe the Kyuubi is nice. That would explain Naruto’s personality.

As he finally lets Sasuke go, Naruto says, “I know it was just temporary, but Gaara completely lost use of its chakra, and he’d used up all his own during his fight with you, I guess. I’d worn him down a lot already. Don’t know what would’ve happened if I didn’t.”

“If you hadn’t, I wouldn’t have risked it,” Sasuke says, and rubs his eye. They both feel fine. “How’s Sakura? How’re you?”

“I’ve got superhuman healing powers, remember? I’ve been fixed up for days,” Naruto answers. “The medics healed up Sakura pretty quick, too. You got her down before anything happened to her organs or something like that, so it was mostly just fixing bones, but they gave her some hardcore painkillers, so she’s mostly been sleeping.”

Normally Sakura wakes up at anything, like most shinobi, and it’s good to hear that’s just the effect of painkillers and nothing more serious. Her hair is in her face and her knees up to her chest, the shirt she’s wearing one of his. They must’ve been staying at his apartment. “Did anything happen to your houses?”

Shaking his head, Naruto says, “Neighborhoods were relatively untouched, though Hinata’s roof caved in. Some Suna-nin noticed an Oto-nin going for the residential area and killed him. Guess he’s a fan of kids. Yours is just closest to the hospital.” Then he frowns, pauses, and adds, “Uh, I’m sorry, but I actually have to go. See, Jiraiya told me I had to go help find the new Hokage - don’t ask, I don’t get it either - and I sort of insisted I waited until you wake up.”

“New Hokage?” he says, and Naruto’s eyes widen. “No one’s told me anything yet. What happened?”

So quickly it leaves Sasuke feeling dizzy, Naruto explains what happened between the fight with Gaara, and when yesterday. And here Sasuke thought Orochimaru couldn’t get much worse than wanting to possess him. Did he _honestly_ think Sasuke was going to go with him after destroying his home? After killing the Hokage, and potentially sparking a war? Sasuke’s had enough almost-wars to last him a lifetime.

He pulls his knees up to his chest, and drops his head between them, trying to keep his breathing even to avoid passing out. This is a lot to take in, to put it mildly. The Sandaime was the one who shoved Itachi through the ranks so he could make enough money to pay for life expenses once their trust fund ran out, despite everyone’s reluctance to let a Uchiha through. Sasuke never really talked to the man, but he always did have a certain amount of appreciation for him, not to mention the hopeful assumption that he’d be good enough to get the same treatment without ever even really thinking about it. It was probably how he allowed to become a genin despite having “a history of mental instability.” When he went into the chuunin exams, it never even crossed his mind.

And now the Sandaime’s gone.

To avoid any favoritism comments, he never explained any of this to his friend or girlfriend, but Naruto clearly knows something’s up because Sasuke feels his hand touch his back. Before either of them can actually say anything, though, the door opens. He doesn’t look up.

“Jiraiya’s looking for you, Naruto,” Kakashi says, followed by, “Should I call the medic?”

There’s a rustle and knock from Sasuke’s immediate right and when he looks up, he sees Sakura blinking sleep out of her eyes. Then she freezes, getting a good look at what’s going on, and launches herself at him. Kakashi says, “I’ll take that as a no,” when Sasuke doesn’t topple over.

Naruto stands as Sasuke gets a good enough balance to hold his girlfriend. “I’ll make sure Jiraiya doesn’t make too many stops,” he says with a yawn, “so get better fast, you got that?”

After Sasuke promises he will, Naruto leaves, and Sakura goes on about the same thing he did, about how no one would give them details, and last time that happened, you know. “I’m fine. I’ll be fine,” Sasuke tells her, and if it’s a lie, at least it’s a good one.

 

 

Sasuke hears that Kakashi’s in the hospital within ten minutes of signing himself out, and asks the receptionist which room. It’s not as though he’s actually left the building yet. He can spare a visit.

What he finds is a room full of jonin who all fall silent the moment he enters. Kakashi’s unconscious on the bed, mask off with that thing on his face to help him breath, and his Sharingan eye bandaged. That in and of itself is almost enough to get Sasuke to panic, to realize coming here was a really bad idea because of course Kakashi’s going to be fine, there’s no way even a Uchiha has bad enough karma to lose his actual brother and then a brother-like figure within a matter of months. But then comes the other jonin, and no. No, Sasuke’s luck really is that bad.

All it takes is for him to hear “Akatsuki” and “Naruto” in the same sentence, and he’s gone. The last thing he hears from the room behind him is Team Eight’s jonin yell, “You fucking idiot, that’s _Uchiha Itachi’s_ little brother!”

It’s only been a couple of days, Naruto and Jiraiya couldn’t have gone far, and there’s only one main gate. Likely they’d be in the nearest town, which Sasuke could easily get a bus too, or run to, if worst come to worst.

First he stops at his apartment, thinking that maybe Naruto brought his cell phone, but this must count as on duty, because it’s actually still on the kitchen table. Same with Sakura’s - she must be at the hospital, and a quick look at the clock shows Sasuke doesn’t have enough time to get her. Great. Down a teammate, then. As much as he’s come to depend on both of them, he’s not willing to wait around for a second bus and waste more time. Instead he just grabs both his cell phone, and his friend’s, as well as a jacket and his forehead protector (for free bus fare), and runs.

The driver must’ve watched the exams, because the way his eyes wide means he recognizes Sasuke when he’s never seen the man in his life. “I need a ride to Kimachi,” he says, slightly out of breath, his week long stay in the hospital clearly still affecting him. “That’s the first stop, right?”

Nodding, the driver answers, “Get in, kid. I’ll try avoid traffic as much as I can.”

With a tired thank you, Sasuke drops into the first row seat, and tries his hardest not to twitch the entire ride.

 

 

Opening the door to his hotel room to find two Akatsuki members there really wasn’t the way Naruto intended to start his day. Right before either of them can attack, or he can react, though, there’s a sudden flash of white light, and the blue shark-looking one ends up half way down the hall.

Somehow, getting saved by Sasuke is even more surprising.

Not giving either of the Akatsuki members the opportunity to get over their surprise, Naruto ducks under the arm of the one closest to hide and slides up next to his teammate, figuring that if this is going to happen, it’s going to happen together. “Oh, great,” the smaller one says as the blue one gets up. “A _lightning_ user.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be in the hospital?” Naruto asks, and Sasuke just shrugs. If he signed himself out AMA for this, Naruto’s going to kill him. “What’re you doing here?”

Sasuke doesn’t answer. The smaller one attacks suddenly, rushing them, and Sasuke’s hand glows blue, letting out the sound of birds. Not willing to let him get ahead, Naruto creates as many clones as he can, filling the hallway, ready to attack, but the second one’s on them just as fast as the first, going straight for him.

Just as he calls on the Kyuubi’s chakra, the flow stops. Shit. If this guy can absorb chakra, then both of them are so fucked, but that doesn’t mean Naruto can’t at least try.

He misses how, but Sasuke ends up down the hall with a horrifying crack that can only come from a bone breaking. “We've got a problem,” the first one says, and sounds honestly panicked. “Kid’s got the same eyes as Uchiha.”

Blue swears. “Take care of the Jinchuriki,” he says, dodging all of Naruto’s attacks, which is weird considering they’re in a cramped space with twenty clones, chakra stolen or not. “I’ll deal with the kid. We could still use a couple of Uchiha eyes.”

Naruto’s style is more offensive than defense, so he tries to get in the first hit, but this guy’s got a giant sword just like Blue, which he can apparently wield in a hallway that can’t be more than five feet across, and oh shit, there’s no enough room to evade, he’s totally about to die, Sasuke better fucking -

Then the attack never connects. Neither does his own, and all the clones fall to heap on the floor. It’s like the guy just blinked out of existence.

When he looks to the side, he sees Sasuke on the ground still, one eye bleeding with the Mangekyo activated, and Blue’s sword coming straight down towards his back. But apparently Blue didn’t take as much chakra as Naruto thought because he feels it just explode, like some pressure valve in his head releasing, and runs straight for the guy’s back. It’s not like shinobi are meant to be all honorable and everything and always wait for their opponent to face them, and he’s really, really not up to seeing his best friend cut in half.

Sasuke explodes to Chidori with his whole body just as Naruto tries, and fails, to hit Blue in the back. Apparently he’s too fast for a an attack only come from one side, but an attack coming from all sides just isn’t dodgeable, and Naruto knows something’s up the moment he’s thrown backwards and lands on something soft.

Of course, Jiraiya. “What took you so long?” he says, standing, as Sasuke somehow manages to pull himself up to his feet. His eyes are back to black, but still bleeding, and he’s clutching his wrist. “Were you with someone?”

If they weren’t currently fighting an Akatsuki member and inside a frog, Naruto would probably punch his mentor just because the way he sputters is answer enough. The more Blue tries to move, the more he seems to get sucked down, and Naruto catches his friend before he can collapse.

“You’re inside my stomach now, there’s nowhere to run,” Jiraiya says, and Naruto’s trying his hardest not to freak out the realization that oh shit, the guy disappeared after Sasuke activated the Mangekyo Sharingan, which is something he remembers Itachi could supposedly do, and his friend just pulled that off on the first try. That really can’t be good for him. “What do you want with Naruto? Why are you here? You two, try not to move.”

Not moving isn’t exactly Naruto’s strong suit, but Sasuke’s fading fast, acting like some sort of anchor keeping him in place. This should be a fight, short or long or medium, with Jiraiya coming out on top, but it doesn’t last more than ten minutes, because Blue sends a hole straight through the side of the stomach lining. The air smells like acid and salt, and from Sasuke, blood.

If the two Akatsuki members were trying to kill them instead of capture him - or maybe them, Naruto couldn’t really tell what “use a couple of Uchiha eyes” mean - they’d probably dead. Looking down at Sasuke, eyes bleeding and his wrist broken, Naruto feels sick from all the similarities to Itachi right before he died. Since like the age of ten, he spent a lot of time in the Uchiha apartment, so that death hit him pretty hard, too. Losing Sasuke would be losing a brother, not just a friend.

“We’ve got to get him to a hospital,” Naruto says, cutting through Jiraiya’s freak out over the torn stomach lining. “I’ll leave with you right after this time, but that happens first.”

This stupid, middle of nowhere town doesn’t have a hospital since it’s so close to Konoha. By the time they make it home an hour later and drop Sasuke off, much to Sakura’s horror, he’s still breathing. For some reason, that doesn’t make Naruto feel much better, and he brings his phone regardless of rules because he refuses to be caught by surprise once he makes it back.

 

 

Sometimes Naruto forgets exactly how _big_ the Land of Fire is. The trail to where Tsunade is leads them on an almost week long journey by car, and he spends the long hours practicing what Jiraiya called the Rasengan with the windows down just so he doesn’t accidentally cause a crash by fucking up. And he fucks up a lot.

During the fight with Gaara, Sakura almost died, and Sasuke had to get inside the guy’s head to get him to stop. Then with the Akatsuki, Naruto was basically useless, and his friend literally blinked someone out of existence before he could attack Naruto while getting attacked himself. That seal thing Sasuke has already makes using too much chakra pretty dangerous, and even before that, the Mangekyo Sharingan just plain freaked him out. Naruto wants to be able to contribute to fights enough that Sasuke won’t be forced to resort to using it.

Besides, Sakura’s learning medical jutsu to make herself better. Sasuke learned how to twist the Chidori into three different forms in the course of a month. The least Naruto can do is learn one technique of his own.

On the day they do finally find Tsunade, he’s mastered the second stage, and started on the third, which is stupidly difficult. He was expecting someone nice, since Jiraiya insisted she would make a good Hokage, but instead discovers someone more cynical than Sasuke on his bad days. It’s not much of a surprise to Jiraiya when he explodes in the restaurant, and the place is empty enough that they don’t make much of a scene. Maybe it’s childish, but Naruto doesn’t care - being Hokage is his dream, he can’t stand the fact that just because she’s older than him, Tsunade thinks she can shove her great wisdom about how ridiculous it is down his throat. Who cares how much life experience she’s had? He knows what it’s like to be miserable. If it weren’t for Sasuke’s family’s complete fall from grace, Naruto would’ve grown up hated and alone just because the Yondaime decided to shove the Kyuubi inside a baby. Maybe he would’ve grown up to be like Gaara, and isn’t that a nightmare?

No, he decides. This woman was well liked and respected, and she left on her own. She has no idea what’s it’s like to be an outcast, and that’s why she should just take the job first. As filler.

“One week,” he tells her. “I’ll learn this is one week, and then you’ll become Hokage.” And heal Sasuke, he adds to himself.

Tsunade doesn’t necessarily agree, but she doesn’t necessarily disagree either. In a week, Naruto’s already mastered stage one and stage two. Even if this close to kills him, he will succeed.

That’s when his phone finally goes off.

 

 

This time Sakura actually got updates, thankfully, so she wasn’t ready to tear her hair out the entire time, but she was still worried. Now Sasuke is awake again, and her worry’s barely decreased at all, because he just _isn’t talking_. “You’ll be out of here in about a week and a half,” she tells him, hesitant. “Naruto called. He said he and Jiraiya were almost done.”

Giving Sasuke false hope isn’t good, but Sakura doesn’t want to tell them that there’s only a possibility that the greatest healer Konoha’s ever seen might come back because apparently she’s jaded as fuck. Ever since he woke up, he’s been having trouble seeing, and according to Naruto, did that thing that supposedly Itachi could do where he sent someone to a different dimension. That probably shouldn’t be possible for someone who’s only activated the Mangekyo twice, but it’s not like she actually knows anything about it. Still, she’s starting to think he might have a panic response once his brain’s flooded with enough adrenaline. The techniques are all there. They should just take more practice. If he’s calmer, maybe they would.

If he’s calmer, she wants him to never have to do that ever again, because he returned with bandages wrapped around his eyes, and she might be the stable one, but that still felt like a bad flashback to seeing Itachi in the hospital bed. They’re a team, and will continue to be if they all make chuunin, so if she’s going to be a medical-nin, then she needs to be good enough to heal eye trauma caused by a Mangekyo.

He looks over at her without really seeing her, before his gaze turns back towards the blankets. “Your wrist will be healed,” she says, watching as he itches where his skin meets the cast. “Kakashi told me when the new Hokage comes, we’ll find out whether or not we made chuunin.”

What she doesn’t mention is that she and Shikamaru already have. No one asked Kakashi’s opinion, or the several other jonin who were all for Sasuke and Naruto becoming chuunin, too, so he’s going to ask the Godaime to look over the results again if she doesn’t do it herself. Technically, the Hokage was supposed to make the decision anyway for the Konoha-nin involved. Though Kakashi didn’t say it, Sakura thinks it was still pretty clear that her teammates weren’t even considered just under the grounds of who they are, despite saving everyone from a Jinchuriki going on a rampage.

Yeah, they _so_ don’t deserve to advance.

She checks her cell phone, sees that her lunch break is almost up. “I’ve got to go,” she says, and he looks up at her again. “I’ll be back later, okay?”

When she turns to leave, she doesn’t bother to try and touch him, knowing what his reaction will be, so it’s a surprise when his fingers snag at the fabric of her medic’s coat. His eyes are clearer than before, she sees when she turns back around. “I’m sorry,” he says, voice hoarse from underuse. “I just…” He loses the sentence before it even starts.

This is probably still considered progress, though, and a very, very tiny bit of the worry lessens. “Hey, I get it,” she says, and she’s been around him long enough that she actually does. “Take your time. I’m here when you need me.”

Taking a shaky breath, he lets go, and says, “I’ll see you later.”

Knowing that’s the best she’s going to get, she leaves, and goes off to start her rounds. Naruto better return what that sannin, because Sakura is really getting sick of seeing her boyfriend confined to a hospital bed.

 

 

During the fight between the sannin, it’s not like anyone got to really talk to anyone else, but Naruto’s not blind, and he did manage to pick up a thing or two. Mainly, Sasuke is really screwed.

According to him, Orochimaru wants his body (which is weird, but then again, Naruto’s a Jinchuriki, so he’s not one to talk) for like eternal youth or something like that. But clearly Orochimaru is all injured and his arms aren’t really working because he’s not using them and they’re bandaged, which means he probably needs a healthy-ish body. So that moves up his expiration date, Naruto’s guessing, which moves up when he’s going to go after Sasuke. Or at least that’s what makes sense.

Finding out Kabuto is a traitor sucked, too - not only is being betrayed, well, painful, but it also means he saw how Naruto and Sakura fight. Oh, and he survived the Rasengan. Overall, not good.

Literally the only good thing to come out of this is Tsunade agreeing to become Hokage, which, yeah, is actually just about the best possible thing that could happen, but whatever. The other two realization still pretty much suck as much as anyone could expect. “Is it possible to heal eye damage from Mangekyo Sharingan?” he asks, figuring he might as well see if he can pull another good point from this. “My friend’s kind of made his bleed.”

For a moment, Tsunade just stares at him. Then she looks up at Jiraiya and says, “I saw on the news that Uchiha Itachi died a few months ago. The _kid’s_ got one?”

“His name’s Sasuke,” Naruto says, “and yeah. Sakura told me his eyes are basically okay now, but they were messed up enough after the chuunin exams, and then there was the Akatsuki attack where he blinked and made someone disappear -”

“A Uchiha with the Mangekyo Sharingan was allowed to go through the chuunin exams?”

“Well, it’s not like he used it _during_ the exams,” he says, and sighs. “We stopped a Jinchuriki from going on a rampage through Konoha, which would’ve made everything even worse and that’s saying something. I wore him down enough that Sasuke shut down his chakra supply. Oh, and Sakura, our teammate, is training to be a medic.”

Again, Tsunade sort of stares. Then she says, “I think I need to hear the full story.”

To the best of his ability, Naruto explains the fight with Gaara, and then the fight with the Akatsuki, and quickly gets off topic by telling her how Sakura ended up winning her match. If Tsunade’s going to be the one who decides whether or not they’re going to be chuunin, he figures it doesn’t hurt to make as good of an impression as he can while he still has the time.

 

 

After getting healed, Sasuke seems to come back to himself a little, returning to being an active participant to Sakura and Naruto’s conversation, so Kakashi doesn’t feel worried anymore when he leaves them alone.

Tsunade’s back is to him when he enters the Hokage’s office. She’s standing, facing the television with the remote in hand, the image frozen on is a snake with its sides bulging out, Sasuke’s Chidori-glowing hand against someone’s side, and Sakura on the ground with a kunai out in front of her. “This is the fight with Orochimaru,” Tsunade says without turning around. “I’ve spent the past day watching the important parts of the exam, but this is thing that’s getting to me. Watch closely, Hatake.”

Unsure whether or not he’s supposed to speak, Kakashi opts for silence as she hits play and finally turns around. She’s as beautiful and young looking as she’s always been, which is disconcerting considering her age, but what’s really getting to him is what’s on the screen. Sasuke is fast, anyone with eyes can see that, but it’s still just wrong that he’s able to draw blood on a legendary sannin at the age of fifteen and manage to break his girlfriend out of killer intent paralysis before Orochimaru had the chance to fully recover. By the time he receives the bite by jumping in front of Sakura and Naruto explodes the snake using clones, Kakashi’s hit by the same feeling he had during the third test; it really isn’t like watching three genin fight. As he spends at least six days a week with them, he’s been a little blind to their progress, but seeing it on a small screen like this, it’s forcibly brought to his attention.

“Naruto learned the Rasengan in two weeks,” Tsunade tells him, pausing it again once Sasuke’s convulsions stop. “I heard from him that the jutsu Uchiha used against the Kazekage's son was of his own design, and Haruno learned how to temporarily disrupt a person’s nervous system in a month. With a team this skilled, how is it that only one of them was raised to chuunin level?”

“I wasn’t consulted,” Kakashi answers, realizing that’s what she’s getting at. Traditionally jonin leaders are, but in the chaos of what happened and the Hokage missing, certain steps were skipped. Allegedly. “They can easily do it, especially if kept together.”

Glancing back at the television, Tsunade says, “The Rasengan, adapting your jutsu - those are jonin level techniques. With a good number of our actual jonin dead or incapacitated, I don’t care about the Council’s opinion on your team. The Sharingan isn’t going to waste on a genin who clearly displays the necessary skills to pass the exam. The only issue I have is Orochimaru’s seal.”

As it was a Jinchuriki who assisted in attacked the village, and Sasuke’s fight went by in silence, Kakashi honestly thought this wasn’t going to happen. “I confined it immediately after they returned from the second test, but before the preliminaries,” he says. “It bothered him during their fight against Gaara when he used the Mangekyo after three attempts with the Chidori, but other than that, it doesn’t seem to have affected him much.”

“I sent Jiraiya to find a way to remove it. Permanently,” Tsunade says, taking a seat and pulling over a pile of paperwork. “Send your girl in here when you have the chance. I hear she’s training to be a medical-nin, and I want a word with her.”

If this leads to where Tsunade’s implying, Sakura’s going to be ecstatic. “I’ll see if I can catch her before she leaves Sasuke’s room,” Kakashi answers, and Tsunade officially dismisses him.

At this rate, he’s going to have the most terrifying team Konoha’s seen in years.

 

 

Despite getting healed, Sasuke’s still not exactly one hundred percent. He’s more like fifty percent. Okay, maybe sixty. Whatever, it’s bad enough that Naruto can’t stop thinking about Orochimaru and he’s really, really worried. So after his friend signs himself out of the hospital, he walks him home, because Sakura’s in a meeting with Tsunade.

About halfway to the apartment, Sasuke just stops walking. “Can you quit looking at me like that?” he says, scowling. “I’m not about to break. You don’t have to - I don’t know, take care of me or something. Or did you just miss the part we were promoted to chuunin?”

This is the most he’s said at once since Naruto got back, which is enough to get him to actually grin. “Nah, I got it,” he says, sticking his hands in his pockets. “You think they’ll let us stay with our team?”

With a shrug, Sasuke answers, “Depends on whatever you said to the Godaime to convince her to let a Uchiha advance a rank, I guess. I’ve proven that I have at least minimal control over a tailed-beast. You know, the thing that got my family in trouble in the first place?”

The smile fades. He hadn’t thought of it like that. “Seriously? That’s why you weren’t made chuunin right away?”

“You and I aren’t what I’d call the most liked combination in Konoha,” Sasuke says. “It didn’t take anyone telling me to get that. I’m actually lucky that Gaara was so blatant in his homicidal tendencies, because imagine how that would’ve gone down otherwise? I saw the footage in the hospital. The camera focused on my face a lot. A Jinchuriki losing control during a fight with the last Uchiha with a fully formed Sharingan? Yeah, even with Suna’s attack, I doubt everyone’s going to be happy with the Godaime advancing me.”

What happened with his family really threw his life off track, Naruto gets that, but he never thought it could still be screwing with him. After all, Itachi got accepted pretty okay. But then again, Sasuke spent his whole life getting compared to Itachi, so maybe that’s part of the problem.

Of course, Naruto hadn’t made chuunin right away, but it’s not like he made genin first try, either. That just seems to be his life - get everything a day late. Besides, his victory was met with cheering, shockingly enough. At least people were noticing him in a _good_ way. If he could convince the Hokage on the way back that he really was great and all, then he would totally make chuunin, he’d told himself, and it paid off. He hadn’t realized doing basically the exact same thing he did could actually have a bad effect for Sasuke instead.

And then there’s the issue of Orochimaru.

Shrugging, he says, “Fuck them. We’ll just have to be extra awesome and prove everyone wrong. You should stay over for a few days.”

“Kakashi’s already making me stay with him.”

Naruto blinks. “What?”

“Protection until I’m back at my full capacity,” Sasuke says, and scruffs the toe of his shoe against the sidewalk. “In case Orochimaru sends anyone after me. I just need to pick up some clothes and take a shower.”

After seeing what Orochimaru can do, Naruto has to agree that Kakashi is probably better protection than him and Iruka. “That’s good,” he says, and gets to walking again. A moment later, Sasuke falls into step beside him, and despite how badly Naruto just wants to ramble, they continue the rest of the way to the apartment in silence.

 

 

The first time he was in the hospital after the Forest of Death, Sasuke discovered he seriously hated the food, so the next two times, he dodged eating as much as possible. This is now proving to be a terrible idea, because low blood sugar makes him sluggish and dizzy, and Orochimaru’s men aren’t the type of opponents he wants to fight at half his normal level.

He’d barely even gotten his shirt on after his shower before they broke in, and with five against one, he doesn’t exactly have the time to make a dive for his cell phone and call up Kakashi.

Even just trying for either the Chidori or the Mangekyo makes the seal burn, so he’s stuck with his normal style. In the cramped space, there’s not much he can do, but there’s not much they can do, either. It’s not until he kicks one through the open window, though, that all five of them are on him. That’s also when he hears the first of the footsteps, because he’s not the only shinobi in this building, and it only makes sense that they’d react to what’s clearly an attack.

One of them gets a grip on his ankle, and another on his arm, holding him up suspended, and there’s something wrong with all of their chakra signatures. “Orochimaru never told us how much of a pest he was going to be,” the one holding his ankle says. “Still, you’re pretty pathetic. Kimimaro had so much more promise.”

“I’m not going with you if that’s why you’re here,” Sasuke says, ignoring him, because he could put together what’s going on easily enough. “There’s nothing you can offer that can make me want to.”

A girl steps in front of him, arms crossed, and puts all her weight to one hip the way Ino does, except even Ino doesn’t look this condescending. “Really? Nothing?” she says. “Not even...the power to take revenge for your brother?”

Clearly, she thinks this is actually going to work. As much as Sasuke wouldn’t mind watching the whole organization burn, he has his fair share of common sense, and it isn’t physically possible to defeat an entire group of S-class criminals. Even getting rid of one of them nearly killed him. “No, sorry,” he says. “My brother raised me better than that that.”

With a shrug, the girl says, “Well, no one ever said you had to come willingly,” and the end of the kunai comes down on his temple right as his door bursts open. 


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Naruto returns to Konoha, Sakura is an amazing medical-nin, and both are not so secretly emotional wrecks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So you know how chapters one through four were kind of sweet? Yeah, that's about to disappear, so forewarning that there is mention of torture a lot in this chapter. This is also the longest chapter, for reasons.

It’s a little under two years when Naruto finally returns to Konoha. Today’s warm for December, but cold enough for a jacket, and people are bundled in scarves and sweaters. The Hokage Monument’s changed, of course, but everything else is pretty much the same, or at least at first look. He’s sure interiors aren’t. City-wide destruction is a pretty good excuse for renovations.

Jiraiya mentioned something or another about going to Tsunade first, so Naruto ditches that situation quick, and searches around town for flashes of pink instead. Even though he should probably go home before anything else, it’s Sakura he missed the most - and Sasuke, but Naruto’s had his phone with him, and updates remained the same. Unfortunately, his phone is dead, or he’d make this a lot faster by calling her. This was a problem he ran into a lot over the past two years; Jiraiya is woefully ignorant of technology, and flat out refused to let Naruto ever use a car charger, believing it would short the engine or something like that. 

After a half hour, he gives up on the streets, and decides to check the apartment, which she said she’s been staying since it’s closest to the hospital (and also to keep up to mortgage for when Sasuke returns, but if she won’t mention that, then neither will Naruto). Though he was hoping she wouldn’t be there, not ready to see the place yet, she opens the door on his second knock. He doesn’t even get in a hello before she leaps at him, arms around his neck, and nearly toppling both of them over. She smells like disinfectant and that flowery shampoo she always liked, and her hair’s all fluffy from a recent blow drying. Unlike him, she’s the same size as she was two years ago.

With her voice muffled by the fabric of his black jacket, she says, “Hello, Naruto,” and suddenly he feels like he’s breathing for the first time in two years.

“Hey,” he says, hugging her tighter. “I missed you.”

When she laughs, it sounds more like a sob, and he can feel her tears against his neck. “Don’t leave like that. Don’t do that ever again,” she says. “Both of you was just too hard.”

Leaving was hard for him, too, but after the Akatsuki coming for him, and after not even finding a trace of where Sasuke had gone other than a bloody, half-destroyed apartment, he just didn’t see another option. “I won’t,” he tells her. “I promise.”

He’s stronger now, and if their conversations over the phone were anything to go by, then so is she. Maybe they’re even strong enough to find Sasuke and bring him back.

All Naruto wants is for Team Seven to be together again, and safe.

 

 

For a while, when he wasn’t on missions, Kakashi and Sakura would meet up about twice a week just for the sake of company. He has friends, the few that there are, but with Sasuke and Naruto gone, all she had were people she talked to sometimes, and her parents. It was the only way to stop everything from just becoming too much. There’s really nothing quite like opening up the door of your boyfriend’s apartment, expecting to find him asleep or maybe even eating, and instead discovering weapons embedded in the walls, burns on the floor, and blood splattered throughout the living room. Tests proved most was Sasuke’s. Some was left unidentified.

When the remains of Team Seven meet at the outcrop looking out over Konoha, she half expects Kakashi to say they should do the bell test over again. There’s an awkward enough pause that she thinks he was probably going to, but he just rubs the back of his head, and says, “How about dinner?”

There’s no point in the bell test. They’d pass - if not in getting in the bells, then definitely in the principle of it. And there’s nothing to it without Sasuke. They aren’t Team Seven without Sasuke. All they have is a vague idea of where is he, but the area around Otogakure is now off limits. Anyone sent to search there has either been returned dead, or not come back at all.  Never in her life has Sakura ever hated anyone the way she hates Orochimaru.

Because this is only Naruto’s first night back, they go to Ichiraku. What comes out of it is an impromptu celebration, because Team Eight is there, and all the cooks and servers know him, and Sasuke is gone, but at least she has Naruto back. She’s a medic, she’s made to fix what’s broken. With her best friend, she can.

Now all they have to do is find Sasuke. As if it were that easy.

 

 

Sometimes, when he hears the screaming, he wants to tell whoever the most recent test subject is, _It’ll be okay_.

It won’t. At one point he was in that position - he doesn’t know how long ago, memories are hazy, but the point is that he was - so he knows if it works, you’re put through. If it doesn’t, you just get killed. In a way, failing sounds better. Failing isn’t an option for him, though. Orochimaru says it’s a superiority complex; Kabuto argues it’s an inferiority complex. Really, he doesn’t care. He thinks the whole situation is ridiculous, and he’d rather get through the day without any personality analysis.

Most of the screaming sessions happen at night, and he only hears them because sound in here echoes. That’s why he likes mornings. In mornings, everything is quiet, Orochimaru hasn’t gotten started on anything yet. Being in charge of all of Otogakure is stressful, apparently. That’s why he needs someone to do the dirty work.

Dirty work. Right. At the moment all this dirty work can think about is going back to sleep and rediscovering whatever dream he was having. Whatever it was, it was good, but the most he can remember is laughter and rain hitting against windows, and even that’s already slipping away from him. The clock next to him reads _8:31_. If he doesn’t get up, he won’t have the chance to shower again, and it still feels like the shower last night wasn’t enough. Kabuto says he showers so much it isn’t good for him. He argues that someone talking about how much they want your body all the time is enough to make you feel violated.

Yeah, Orochimaru hadn’t liked that one much.

Reluctant, but knowing he’ll be off the entire day without following the proper morning routine, he pulls himself out of bed, telling himself he’s absolutely ready to face today.

 

 

So there might be a chance she hates the Akatsuki as a collective roughly as much as she hates Orochimaru. That _is_ a distinct possibility.

Though she hasn’t actually spoken to Gaara since his apparent personality change, during the June chuunin exam a year and a half ago, Temari was acting as an examiner, and Sakura somehow struck up a friendship with her. The other girl bought her dinner as a thank you for helping stop her brother without getting him killed, and what’s followed has been a lot of texting and late night phone calls. It would’ve been nice to have a friend in Konoha outside of her teacher, but Sakura made due with what she had.

More than that, Gaara’s Kazekage now. The Akatsuki kidnapping the leader of Sunagakure is just mind boggling.

Thanks to Tsunade’s teachings, Sakura manages to save Kankuro's life. “We’ll get your brother back,” she tells the two of them. “I promise.”

Making promises as a shinobi is a bad idea. Mom says the same thing about being a case worker. With their father dead, all the Suna siblings have is each other, and Sakura recognizes the look. It’s the same way Sasuke and Itachi would act with each other. Well, Mom promised she’d keep them together, she told Sakura years later, which means she can promise these two she’ll get Gaara back. It’s the least she can do.

“We better hurry,” Kakashi says. “We’ve already spent enough time here.”

Before they leave, Temari hugs her goodbye. “Thank you,” she says. “For both of them.”

Haruno women save lives, it’s what they do. Sakura wonders who she’s going to have to kill in order to save this one.

 

 

About two hours in, they come across an Akatsuki member, who Sakura is guessing is Blue. The first thing he does is scrunch his forehead and ask, “Where’s the Uchiha kid? Are the rumors about Orochimaru actually true?”

Sakura gets they should probably be jumping straight into the fight, but that’s enough to get them all the hesitate. “What rumors?” she answers, and the look on Blue’s face instantly goes from confused to utterly delighted.

 _Oh_ , she thinks, _This isn’t good_ , and that’s the understatement of the year.

 

 

Killing people isn’t really something he enjoys, but he gets orders to do it, so he does it. This time he didn’t even get a reason.

These men are all Ame-nin with scratched metal across their heads, a full band of shinobi-for-hire that bring up some vague feeling of nostalgia that doesn’t make much sense. They’re all weak, probably worth about half of what they’re actually paid. He gets them all down with a mix of their own jutsu thrown back in their face as he copies every move, and lightning-based attacks. There isn’t much that a water-based jutsu can do against a Chidori-charge katana, after all.

By the end, it’s just him, and some kunoichi. “Don’t think I’m going to die as easily as the rest of them, boy,” she says.

“I’m sorry,” he answers, and slips his blade between her ribs.

 

 

The celebration Suna throws in the wake of Gaara’s return is huge. Sakura’s still exhausted and a little off kilter from her fight, but more than that, excited, because she finally has a lead. From the sound of it, she’s not going to like the results very much, but it’s a chance to save her boyfriend. How in her right mind wouldn’t she jump right on this?

Though it takes a while, she eventually manages to peel herself away from Lee, and get over to the Suna siblings and the rest of her team. Getting Naruto away is a little harder, but she manages, and he listens with better focus than two years ago when she explains about Sasori’s clue for the bridge. “If what Kisame says if true, we’re going to have to essentially kidnap him,” she says, “but it’s not like it’s the first time Konoha’s had to deal with a situation like this.”

Naruto’s grip on the plastic cup tightens, and when he’d heard, he ran straight at the later identified Kisame without waiting for Kakashi’s directive. According to Kisame, there’s a rumor going around that Orochimaru “broke” Uchiha Sasuke. While Naruto’s refusing to admit that could ever happen to their friend, Sakura’s forced herself to go the more realistic route. Working in the hospital’s introduced her to a lot of different injuries, and not all of them physical. Sasuke was already traumatized, he had his moments where the world stopping making sense around him. It’s not all hard to imagine someone was able to twist that, especially considering Orochimaru doesn’t seem the sort above using torture.

Oh, god. Back to hating Orochimaru worse than anyone.

“Hypothetically,” Naruto says after a minute, “if this is true, what would Tsunade do to him? Or would it even be Tsunade?”

As her student, Sakura can probably put in a personal request, or at least just to avoid Ibiki. Reversing something like that can definitely be shoved to someone in I&T, depending on severity. “Normally they do it through genjutsu,” she answers, “but I don’t know how that’s going to work on someone with a Sharingan.”

“What if it doesn’t?”

Sakura hesitates before answering honestly, “I don’t know.”

Because of her position, it’s not like she was ever involved in anything like this, and it’s pretty rare. Whatever the consequence, though, she knows that Sasuke would rather deal with that than be Orochimaru’s puppet, and that’s something she needs to cling to in order to get through this.

 

 

By some miracle, Tsunade approves the request for a squad. “I’ll contact Jiraiya,” she says. “Now that I know what to look before, I’ve been searching around. Uchiha Sasuke is too dangerous to kept unchecked. Bring him in, and we’ll handle it.”

“Handle it as in how?” Sakura asks, not caring if this probably counts as out of term. Those words normally don’t mean anything good, and this is her boyfriend they’re talking about.

“If what that Akatsuki member says is true,” Tsunade answers, “then this sounds like captive-bonding, or similar manipulation. Reversing psychological effects is much more difficult than physical, Sakura. I’m not giving up on one of our own unless I have to, but I won’t send you in there with any illusions just because you love him, either. If they’re irreversible, it’ll be nothing short of a mercy kill. Now go. You’re going to want as much daylight as you can get.”

That isn’t what Sakura wants to hear, but she knows it’s the best she’s going to get. Besides, Sasuke loved Konoha, he loved her, Naruto was like a brother, and Kakashi was close to him even before he was their jonin instructor. Being around something familiar, something good, will be enough to reverse whatever happened to him, that much she’s sure of. So he might not be the most stable person in the world, yeah, but he always recovers. That has to count for something.

As she stands, she says, “We’ll return soon, Tsunade,” and maybe it’s just her imagination, but for a moment, the older woman actually looks worried.

Well. That certainly doesn’t bode well, she thinks, and lets herself out.

 

 

It takes Naruto all of twenty minutes to decide he really, really hates Sai. At least Sakura does, too, and he takes that as some small comfort.

Since it’s late, they’ve decided to take a stop, hiding away their weapons and forehead protectors in order to stay in a hostel for the night and reduce the likelihood of an unwanted attacked. When he tries to escape to the roof, his friend joins him, saying, “Ino actually compared the bastard to Sasuke, can you believe it?”

Outside of their hair color, Naruto doesn’t see much of a similarity. “That’s because Sasuke was a jerk to everyone who wasn’t us,” he points out, and frowns. “Nah, still nicer.”

With a hum of agreement, Sakura adds, “He actually has a filter.”

Sai transcends being a jerk and goes straight into dick territory. Some of what he said to Sakura was just really unnecessary, and he should really be happy Sasuke isn’t here, too, or he’d have to contend with a Chidori. No matter how anyone tried to describe their friend, there was no denying he was protective.

As much as he hates to admit it, Naruto’s a little scared to find out how much has changed.

“Do you think we’re going to find him?” Sakura says suddenly, looking away from him, clutching her pajama pants so tightly her knuckles are white and her shoulders shaking. “I mean, what if we run across Orochimaru first? What if he keeps Sasuke away from us?”

Oh, Naruto hadn’t even thought of that. He’d just sort of assumed Sasuke was going to be there even when, in retrospect, that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. “Then we’re just have to rip apart Otogakure until we find him,” he answers, trying and failing to sound casual about it. “I promised you I’d get him back, right? It’ll be late, but a promise is a promise. We’ll get Sasuke to Konoha.”

“We should’ve practiced more before going into this,” she says. “I’m such an idiot. If he really doesn’t recognize us...well, we’re both really good now, Naruto. He might resort to the Mangekyo. We can’t fight looking him in the eye.”

He hadn’t thought about that, either. “We really didn’t think this through, did we?”

“To be fair, we haven’t really had the chance to talk to Kakashi.” Glancing at the entrance that leads to the roof, she continues, “And those two aren’t much help.”

While Naruto wouldn’t discredit Yamato completely...yeah, not too useful on this front. To both of them, Sasuke’s more a problem than anything else. They have no idea what it’s like, having to wait anxiously to find out if the half covered up news stories really are about him, if he really isn’t dead, if there’s a way to get him back. There’s something Sakura still isn’t telling him, either, Naruto can see that, but every time he tries to ask, she dodges the question. Since they basically tell each other everything, he can pretty much guess what it is.

If they do get Sasuke back, if it’s true, if this fails anyway, then he’s dead.

“Once Sasuke’s with us again,” Sakura says, “we’re going to have to teach Sai some manners. Or keep them as far apart from each other as possible.”

“I say keep them apart,” Naruto says, and lies down, eyes turned to the sky, though it’s too cloudy to see the stars. “It’s an excuse to stay away from him. If he says anything else after this mission, I might kill him myself.”

Sighing, she says, “Yeah, me too. Excuse him, but my hair is perfectly fine. Might suck for being a kunoichi, but my god. Even Ino likes it.”

Yeah, like that’s any surprise. Sakura’s so pretty it’s ridiculous. Sasuke’s mood usually went between flat out depressed, and un-smiley but at least semi-normal, but there were times he’d get scary hyper if he didn’t get enough sleep. Like, worse than Naruto hyper. And when he was thirteen, he may or may not have explained in detail the exact moment he realized how much he liked Sakura.

Regardless of what Sai seems to think, her hair is fucking magical.

It’s also recognizable. Way more recognizable than blonde. Maybe enough to snap someone out of having snapped, though Naruto knows that’s a little too fairy tale for their line of work. “I’ll dye his hair pink, see how he likes it then,” he says. “I probably have some lying around somewhere from that time I dyed our fifth year teacher’s hair purple.”

“That was you?”

“Like anyone else would have the guts.”

She laughs. “That was amazing. He so deserved it, too. Remember that time he put Chouji in time out for combing his hair in class even though all he was trying to do was get that spitball out?”

“He got Hinata to cry because he passed our test scores back in grade order, remember?” Naruto says. “Went off on her for not being as good as Neji. That’s why I did it. Only prank I ever got Sasuke to help me on, too. He distracted the guy by asking about the next test.”

For the next hour, they talk about childhood, everything and nothing, until they’re finally tired enough to sleep. Sasuke’s good, Orochimaru is better, and Sai’s a dick. If they’re going to do this, they might as well get enough rest as they can.

 

 

When Karin comes to collect him to meet someone, he’s only midway through breakfast, still tired from the night before, hair dripping wet, and chopsticks halfway to his mouth. “Do I have to?” he asks, and she spits out such a bitter “yes” that he knows it’s a weapons kind of meeting. Mornings are really awful even on a good day, and getting dragged out of his room by one of the people who’s jealous of him because of “favoritism” reasons already falls into the bad category.

Meetings are also really annoying in general, because talking to anyone he doesn’t know actually takes chakra. It’s just not a good idea to have a discussion when he’s about half a second away from bumping into anything at any given time, and for some reason, everyone just refuses to give him glasses. Something about how seeing with his Sharingan should be enough, and it’s not like he’s blind. Everything’s just sort of blurry. The dependency’s also built up his chakra reserves, which he guesses is a positive thing, but he isn’t any happier about it.

The room’s hot, because it’s December and he’s the only one here who doesn’t mind the cold, and his shirt sticks to back. Apparently, the guy he’s meeting with’s name is Sai, and that’s all the information he gets. Then, shockingly, Orochimaru claims he has “other business he needs to attend to” and just leaves. Kabuto is nowhere to be found, and Karin left midway through the way here.

In all his time in Otogakure, he’s never been left alone with a visitor. “What do you want?” he asks, looking Sai up and down. His chakra reserves are that of someone high level, and very well controlled, and they don’t seem to have much of an age gap. Two, three years at the most. About Karin’s age.

“So you’re Sasuke?” Sai answers, and, well, that’s what Orochimaru and Kabuto call him sometimes, so he nods. “I have a proposition for you.”

Someone has a proposition for him, and he got left alone? Well, and isn’t this morning just filled with shocking developments. “What is it?”

“Well, it’s not from me, actually. It’s from Danzo,” Sai says. “I’ve been working with your old team -” He’s never had a team, this guy must be mixing him up with some other Sasuke. “- to get to you and Orochimaru. I believe you and I would get along much better than Naruto and myself.”

The name Naruto hits hard, and he gets an image of yellow hair, and whiskers. “Who’s Naruto?”

There’s a pause. Then, “Well, this isn’t what I was expecting.”

Oh, and he is so fucked.

 

 

Finding out he attacked Sakura somehow manages to plunge his mood down even further, which Naruto hadn’t thought was possible, but apparently it is. If they had Sasuke, this wouldn’t have happened, he can’t help but think. Sure, Yamato managed to snap him out of it, so that’s good, but Sasuke could’ve prevented it way before then. Just yet another reason they need him back.

Another thing that isn’t helping? Sai isn’t just an asshole, he’s a traitor. They should’ve seen this from a mile away, but they were so wrapped up in worrying about Sasuke that it still comes as a surprise. “I’m going to kill him,” Sakura says, taking a deep breath. “This just made everything so much harder. It’s a rescue mission.”

Even though it probably isn’t it, a small part of Naruto still wonders if maybe Sai's real mission is to kill Sasuke. Sure, they came here to gather information, too, but this is literally a rescue mission, like she said. But even if she’s on their team, part of their friendship, dating Sasuke, there’s still something she can’t get just because she has parents, and her parents actually really like them, too. A lot of people in Konoha already hate Sasuke just because of what family he comes from. This is a pretty good opportunity to finish him off before he has a chance to come back, and say it was for the greater good.

Just thinking that makes Naruto feel sick. “Sakura, how long is it going to take you to heal?” he asks, not wanting to rush her, but at the same time knowing that if he’s right, they have to hurry. Sasuke’s life might be on the line here.

“Not long,” she answers, glancing down at the wound on her arm. It must hurt, but she still smiles at him, which he appreciates just as much as he feels guilty. This is his fault, all his fault, and he really needs to learn how to control it. “In a few minutes we can get going.”

“Maybe we should wait -” Yamato starts, but when Sakura shoots him a glare, he stops. “We can’t just run in there without our full strength. I know the kid’s your friend, but you two do realize what the Mangekyo Sharingan can do, right? If he’s learned how to control it to the degree his brother has, it’s not something you can go against with an injury like that.”

“Believe me, we know exactly what it can do,” Naruto says, crossing his arms and sitting back against a tree. Just because Yamato is right doesn't mean Naruto doesn’t have to be happy about it. “Even before Sasuke got it, we knew around Itachi all the time.”

While they never actually saw Itachi use it, they knew what to listen for in passing conversation. Sasuke explained things to them. Then there’s the whole controlling Gaara and throwing someone into a different dimension. It doesn’t take someone acting like he’s a kid who doesn’t know anything for Naruto to understand what they’re up against.

Frowning, Sakura says, “We sparred against him for years. It’s only been two. The way he moves shouldn’t be all that different. Even when he copied Lee’s taijutsu, the spin he put on it was the typical Uchiha movement Itachi taught him.”

“The Sharingan is going to be a lot harder to dodge than a punch.”

“A full body Chidori is pretty hard to dodge, too,” Naruto says, “and I’ve managed not to die from that.”

As if realizing that arguing is futile, Yamato just shakes his head. “Tell me when you’re ready,” he says. “We’ll leave then.”

Ten minutes later, and Sakura insists she is. Even Naruto isn’t sure if she’s telling the truth, but he’s willing to risk it, too, and really hopes that the magical power of pink hair is enough to get Sasuke to hesitate.

 

 

There’s not a cloud in the sky, which pretty much ruins his chances of using Kirin, since he wants to use the Mangekyo as little as possible. Despite all that blueness, though, it’s still cold and windy, and his thin jacket batters against his side.

Down below are three people just staring up at him, two with wide eyes, and even over the wind, he can hear the girl say, “Sasuke?” which is the second time in a matter of a couple of hours he’s heard that name. Wow, a new record.

He jumps down, careful to land so he doesn’t hurt anything, and prepares to strike. The oldest one moves towards him first, despite the two his age for some reason crying out in protest, and he just evades under the attack, stabbing the jonin through the shoulder. The electrical current will cause temporary paralysis, which is better than death in this situation. Considering their reaction to him, it’s probably better he keeps them alive for questioning. This must be the team Sai was talking about, and if so, he needs to find out their motivation for coming after him.

Usually people in an assassination attempt try to attack. When he goes for the girl, all she does is dodge.

Or try to, anyway - he’s faster than her, by a considerable amount, and the attack’s about to connect when he gets a good look at her. Green eyes, tan skin, hair like sakura blossoms, and he gets hit by a flash of pink hair against a blue pillow, face half hidden by a blanket, light of an earlier morning than he’s ever willing to experience spilling through too-thin curtains. He doesn’t realize he stopped the attack until he also realizes she’s still standing, no blood on her clothes or face, just tears in her eyes, and most definitely not dead.

In his confusion, he doesn’t notice the second person coming at him from his side until they’re directly next to each other, and the chakra coming straight for his head is something he just barely moves out of the way of. Whiskers? Blonde? Must be Naruto. Except that he’s pretty sure that Naruto isn’t supposed to glow red.

 _Oh_. A Jinchuriki. This can’t be an harder to deal with than three-tails, he thinks, but that chakra will be a problem, so he should probably close it down while he can.

Inside the seal, he finds a the tailed-beast half broken out of its cage, jaws snapping, and the blonde boy’s conscience. “You’re annoying,” he tells the fox, and touches it’s head before it can react, watching it disappear into a puff of vapor.

Then the blonde boy - Naruto - says, “You fell for it!” and Sasuke doesn’t feel the needle prick the neck of his physical body until it’s too late.

 

 

Keeping Sasuke unconscious until they reach Konoha is shockingly easy. For precautions’ sake, though, his eyes are still wrapped in bandages and his wrists bound in chakra draining ropes. Sakura and Naruto sit with him in the back of the car unless it’s one of their turns to drive, and he stays slumped against her side for most of the time. And he’s always been light, and maybe this is just her imagination, but it really feels like he weighs practically nothing now. Like her, he doesn’t seem to have grown much, either.

It’s actually eerie, how unchanged he looks. All he’s wearing is a windbreaker, t-shirt, and jeans, which was pretty standard for him, and his hair’s a little longer with his face a little thinner, but he’s more or less the same. There should be more of a physical difference for guys between fifteen and seventeen, she’s pretty sure. Malnutrition could’ve caused it, as could stress or insomnia. Sleeping and eating have never been Sasuke’s strong suits depending on how he’s feeling, and given his reaction to them, the box for “stress” can probably be checked off too. With his “history of mental instability” and intense loyalty to Team Seven, his brother, dead or not, and Konoha in general, probably the only way to induce captive-bonding would be torture. Orochimaru wanted his body, too, so more psychological than physical, she’s guessing.

She really, really hates Orochimaru.

When they get back to Konoha, it’s not like everything’s immediately going to be okay. Even if he did seem to recognize her, and from the look he gave Naruto, she thinks him, too, Sai told them everything. Which is surprising, as Sasuke slipping him into a deep enough genjutsu to scare him, but whatever. Apparently Sai was ordered to kill him, and knowing there are people back home who want him dead is simultaneously not surprising, and bad enough that she already feels paranoid. Not to mention he just didn’t recognize their names at all. She doesn’t know how long Tsunade’s going to give him to break out of this. All Sakura knows is that he better revert back to her Sasuke quickly, because she can’t stand the idea of him dying, no matter what pretty words the action’s dressed up with. Mercy killing isn’t something done to a scared seventeen-year-old.

Or maybe that’s exactly who it’s supposed to be used on. But that doesn’t make her feel any better.

At dusk, after twenty hours of straight driving and car naps, they finally reach Konoha, and get Sasuke to I&T. To Sakura’s relief, it’s Tsunade who meets them there. “He can’t see,” Sakura tells her. “Or, at least not well. Sai said he met him with the Sharingan activated.”

With a humorless smile, Tsunade says, “That’s a good thing. Healing them should help gain his trust,” and Sakura wonders how long she should wait before she requests being able to talk to him herself.

 

 

He wakes to the rough feeling of bandages over his eyes, and bound hands. Chakra dampening handcuffs. Really, their creativity was starting to fail them. It’s not like he’s close to blind already or anything.

Still, when he hears the sound of the door open, he startles, caught by surprise, because he’s usually left alone for a lot longer than this. “What did I do this time to deserve having my eyesight removed?” he asks, not caring how childish his scowls comes across. Right now, he can see enough to get around, and has most of this place memorized that he doesn’t have to use the Sharingan, but that’s still enough visibility to take away to bother him.

“All I did was heal them, Sasuke,” a voice he doesn’t know answers, “but I need to see you, so the lights are on full brightness, and they wouldn’t be able to take that level of sensitivity at the moment. I wouldn’t try to remove them if I were you.”

“Who’re you?” Hearing someone other than Kabuto or Orochimaru is shocking enough, but getting healed? That’s a little hard to believe. “Why would you do that?”

He hears the sound of a chair being pulled back against the floor. “Tsunade. Godaime of Konoha,” she answers, and suddenly the fight comes flooding back to him - the pink haired girl, the blond Jinchuriki, the needle to the neck. Except that he’s never dealt with Konoha before. Orochimaru kept him as far away from there and Suna as he could. “As Hokage, I’m not going to let one of my best chuunin lose his eyesight.”

For a second, he’s sure whatever sedative’s in his system made him hear incorrectly, but no, she definitely said what he thinks she did. “What’re you playing at?” He has no connection to Konoha, he never has, and if she thinks she’s trying to at least appeal to his rank, even that’s wrong. He doesn’t have a rank. He’s not even a genin. He's just Orochimaru's...something. Everyone seems to have a different word for him.

“Your name is Uchiha Sasuke, you’re seventeen, your birthday is July twenty-third,” the Hokage answers, but that’s information anyone can find out. “Almost two years ago to the day you were kidnapped from your apartment after returning from the hospital, which you ended up in as a result of an excursion with the Akatsuki, the organization that killed your brother and legal guardian from the age of ten, or since the failed uprising and subsequent massacre of your family. You graduated at both the youngest, and as the top, of your class two and a half years ago at Konoha Academy, and became a chuunin the following January. You’re a member of Team Seven, with your teammates Haruno Sakura and Uzumaki Naruto, and your jonin Hatake Kakashi.”

The bandages suddenly seem heavy against his eyes, and the handcuffs even more binding. “That’s not true.”

“Really? Then why didn’t you kill Sakura?”

“I -” There’s no answer to that, he realizes. “You’re lying.”

Fabric rustles. “Sasuke, how did you get the seal on your shoulder?”

This isn’t good. Bringing up the seal reminds him that Orochimaru is probably looking for him by now, and when he’s found, he’s going to get a lot worse than bound eyes and chakra dampening handcuffs. “I don’t have to answer your questions,” he says.

With a sigh, the woman says, “No, but that does mean you have to listen, Sasuke.” Getting caught is worse than losing, and he’s never been caught before. Getting caught is worse, so the result is going to be worse. “Sasuke, no one here’s going to hurt you, you don’t need to panic.”

Oh. He’s shaking. Though it’s hard, he gradually gets himself under control. “We looked you over when I healed your eyes,” Tsunade continues. “I’m not the one you’re afraid of, am I, Sasuke?”

He’s not _afraid_ \- Sasuke doesn’t do _afraid_. It’s just that...well, Orochimaru isn’t always the easiest person to deal with. A lot of times it’s hard to figure out what his mood for the day is, or how he’s going to react to something, and really, getting treated like an object isn’t fun.

But he’s still of Otogakure. This woman from Konoha isn’t going to get inside his head and convince him otherwise.

“Your sight wasn’t completely gone. You should be able to take some light,” she’s saying. “A dimmed laptop screen and the lights off in here should be enough for both of us.”

“What’s the point behind that?” 

Another push of the chair. “Because your girlfriend has a thing for pictures,” she answers. “You don’t have the chakra to activate even the normal form of your Sharingan, Sasuke. Don’t try.”

First there’s a click of a light switch, then the sound of something opening, and finally cool fingers to his head, unwinding the bandages. When he gets hit by the sudden light of the screen, he cringes, but a moment later recovers, and finds she was telling the truth. The laptop is visible. Even in the half-light, she’s visible, blonde pigtails, pale skin, and a clear outline of sharp features and tall body.

Despite the situation, he can’t stop himself from smiling. This is the first time he’s been able to clearly see anything in a year.

“Feels good, doesn’t it?” she says, and according to Kabuto, it isn’t possible to heal Mangekyo damage, and that’s why he never bothered. “I thought it might. Must’ve been horrifying, gradually going blind like that. The medic who worked with your brother said he wasn’t too fond of losing his sight, either. He got headaches.”

The smile disappears, twisting into a scowl instead. “Stop,” he says. “I don’t have a brother.”

She clicks on something, the sound loud in the dark. “No, you don’t,” she says. “He died as a result of a fight with the Akatsuki. You were unfortunate enough to watch him die. Ever wonder where your Mangekyo came from?”

Karin said he killed his best friend, and blocked out the memory, which is why everything’s patchy. Orochimaru likes to go on about how he saved him, and that’s why he owes his body as payment in a year or so. As much as Sasuke doesn’t like it, there’s not much he can do about it.

Then the Hokage turns the computer around, and he forgets how to breathe. There’s a picture of him - blatantly him, even though the years’ difference has to be wide - on the back of someone who looks like him, both smiling, and he thinks, _Itachi?_

The cursed seal suddenly burns.

Before he has a chance to say anything, the picture changes, and it’s him again, older, with a Konoha headband on, arm around the shoulders of the pink-haired girl, who has her arm around both his, and the blonde whiskered boy, and some silver-haired guy behind them, looking bored out of his mind. Then, another, of him and the girl in a tree, her head against his shoulder, a finger in the corner of the frame. A third - a bedroom with three bodies crashed on a bed with blue pillows, books and weapons everywhere, all three tangled up in each other. Fourth, he looks exhausted, but closest to now, similar pose as the second, except without the silver-haired guy, and chuunin certificates in all their hands.

Right when she’s about to hit the button to go to a fifth, he snaps his head up, and says, “Shinobi can change their appearance, everyone knows that,” ignoring that his mind’s trying to fill in the blanks of all of these pictures. “Why are you doing this? If you want information, there are better ways to torture someone than to show them falsified pictures, and healing my eyes.”

“Sasuke -”

“Stop _calling_ me that.”

She slams her hand down on the table, rattling the laptop. “Your name is Uchiha Sasuke, you’re seventeen as of July twenty-third,” she says again. “You were orphaned after your family’s murder in the mid-January you were ten, where Itachi then took custody of you, and died at twenty. I’ve spoken to your teammates. You became friends with Naruto when you two were forced to sit at the same table for school lunch. You met Sakura two years later in the rain, and became friends the next day when she gave you back your umbrella. Her mother was your caseworker. The two of you began dating only two weeks before the chuunin exam, where you were bitten by Orochimaru because you were protecting her. The three of you are so tied up in each other your old psychologist was on the verge of declaring you codependent, so there has to be some memory of this somewhere. Sasuke, breathe, no one here is going to hurt you.”

If his hands were free, he’d cover his ears, but that’s not an option, and he can feel what chakra he has available straining against his eyes. “I - you’re _lying_ ,” he says. “You’re lying. I’m not telling you anything.”

She says, and picks something up from the side of the laptop, which with his eyesight repaired, he can see is a syringe. Even though Orochimaru made him immune to most poisons, apparently he forgot normal medical drugs. “Tomorrow we’re removing the seal,” she says, circling around the table. “Maybe you’ll be easier to talk to then.”

The needle goes into his neck again, and the world fades.

 

 

When he wakes up, he immediately knows something’s different. There’s a pain in his shoulder, but not the normal one. Actually, if anything, he feels...empty. But in a good way. Wait, didn’t the Hokage mention something about removing the mark? Is that even possible?

He sits up and twists, trying to look at it, but his shirt’s up too high, and he can’t tell. “Hey, Sasuke,” someone says, and when he looks up, he finds the silver-haired man. Though there’s a mask over his face, it’s still clear he’s smiling. Being able to see is still a hard thing to adjust to, because he normally wouldn’t able to see a detail like that. “It’s good to see you awake.”

The way he says it makes the whole situation sound casual, and puts Sasuke on edge. When he didn’t get an answer, he continues, “I heard you’re going to have a hard time remembering, so I’ll reintroduce myself. Hatake Kakashi, leader of Team Seven, your brother’s friend, and your reluctant babysitter for a few years there. We’ve got a history.”

Unlike with the Hokage, Sasuke’s already finding himself believing this, and that’s just wrong. “What did you do to me?”

“Removed the seal,” Kakashi answers. “Jiraiya spent two years figuring out how to do that, so we weren’t sure if it was going to work. I thought you might want to talk to me more than Tsunade.”

“It’s really gone?” He nods, and Sasuke’s almost more relieved about this than getting his sight back. There are others with the mark, of course, but Orochimaru liked to talk about how his was special. “What’re you going to do? Show me more pictures?”

Shaking his head, Kakashi answers, “Just talk. If we’re going to put you back together, we need to figure out what made your memories disappear in the first place. You were tortured, weren’t you?”

“What? No, I -”

“Sasuke, someone carved into your back with a kunai.” He falls silent. “You don’t get marks like that during a fight.”

There’s a difference between torture and someone hurting you. Kakashi sighs, and says, “I’m used to dealing with you when you’re not talking. Went an entire month dealing with it after your brother died. Keeping quiet isn’t going to work on me. There’s something I can do but you won’t like it.”

Yeah, because that’s such a great way to start explaining an idea. Konoha-nin really don’t think things through. “Oh?” he says. “What’s your grand idea?”

“See, the normal way to reverse captive-bonding is genjutsu -”

“That’s also a way to induce it.”

“Right. Anyway, genjutsu doesn’t work on you because of the Sharingan, but you don’t currently have use of that,” Kakashi says, and then pushes up his forehead protector. “I’m sorry, Sasuke. Really.”

The moment his hand touches Sasuke’s shoulder, he realizes he hasn’t eaten since he got here, and this is probably why, because Kakashi is able to push him down much too easily. Then the Sharingan is spinning, and Sasuke’s isn’t able to react to defend against it, and he can’t say for certain, but he thinks he might have screamed.

 

 

On the third time Sasuke wakes, it’s Sakura and Naruto waiting for him, and his girlfriend, if she is still his girlfriend, has a bowl of rice in her hand. At the sight of his open eyes, they both smile cautiously.

“Do you, uh, know who we are?” Naruto asks. “‘Cause Kakashi said he used the Sharingan to shove a bunch of memories into your head, but he isn’t sure if it worked.”

Even though everything is still sort of jumbled and doesn’t quite make much sense, Sasuke knows enough. He’s a chuunin of Konoha, a Uchiha, little brother to Itachi, member of Team Seven. “I at least remember what he showed me, I think,” he says, and his voice is hoarse. He looks to Sakura and adds, “We met in the rain.”

Believing genjutsu normally isn’t a good idea, but he’s sure his memory will come back properly soon enough, and he’s about ninety-nine percent sure all of that was real. “Yes, we did,” Sakura says, and sits down on the side of the bed he’s lying on. He hasn’t showered since he got here, which is really bothering him after showering at least twice most days for the past two years. “You haven’t eaten a while, so we brought you food. Just don’t eat too fast.”

With shaking hands, he accepts the bowl, and using chopsticks is hard, but he manages. “Is there anything to drink?”

Naruto produces a water bottle from nowhere, and Sakura cuts Sasuke off before he can drink too much at once. “Yeah, sorry. I forgot you haven’t had anything to drink in a while either,” she says, steadying to bowl in his hands. “I’m so happy you’re back, Sasuke.”

Over the past two years, he heard his name so rarely, he stopped identifying by it, and hearing her say it is a relief. Even if his memories of them are still a little off, his time with Orochimaru is perfectly clear. “Me too,” he says, reaching up to touch his shoulder. “It’s really gone?”

With a nod, Naruto says, “I went travelling with Jiraiya while you were gone, and he found a way to seal it. The border of Otogakure is a mess of surveillance, we couldn’t figure out a way in. That’s why last week we just had to draw them out.”

Sasuke notes the use of “them” instead of “you guys.” Good. He wants to be associated with Orochimaru as little as possible. If this is all some elaborate trick, then he’s just going to accept this reality and reject the other. The food’s -

“This is Ichiraku,” he says, looking down at the bowl in his hand as that train of thought stops. Kakashi hadn’t shown him anything about an Ichiraku. Maybe this is true after all. “They let you bring Ichiraku into I and T?”

There’s an awkward silence before Sakura says, “You aren’t in I and T. Well, you were, but not now. You’re at the hospital. And will be for the next week. For observation.”

Oh, yeah. No one’s going to release the seventeen-year-old who switched alliances the day after a genjutsu reversed everything. Or some things. Most is still trying to piece itself together. “They’re letting me have visitors?”

After exchanging a look, Naruto says, “It has something to do with surrounding you with familiar settings.”

“To make sure I don’t forget again.”

“Yeah, something like that, I guess.”

He still has chakra dampening restraints on, but they aren’t handcuffs anymore. Just, fuck Orochimaru. “Why didn’t Kakashi just use the genjutsu on me to begin with?”

As much as he doesn’t want to admit it, that first meeting with Tsunade absolutely terrified him. “No one was sure how it would react with the cursed seal,” Sakura says. “And, um, she wanted to make sure you weren’t, you know, faking it. That you actually had forgotten about us, and hadn’t just defected or something.”

Itachi guarded him against their dad during an attempted uprising, Sasuke remembers. They’d gotten blood all over themselves, and had to wait for hours in the hospital, and then he met Naruto two weeks later. Loyalty to Konoha is something that was drilled into him.

“I think I’m going to be sick,” he says, suddenly realizing what happened, and Sakura to get the bowl of food out of his hands as Naruto drags him to the bathroom before anything actually comes up.

Somehow, he manages not to cry, but that doesn’t stop his body from shaking. Naruto holds back his hair to stop him from getting anything into it, and Sakura rubs small circles in his back, releasing chakra into him as she does. Medic. Oh. That’s what she’d been training to be. Tsunade showed an interest in her. Naruto went off travelling with Jiraiya. Sasuke ended up with Orochimaru. The unfairness of it all hits him so hard it physically aches.

It’s just, maybe he doesn’t have the right to let it bother him like this. He’s the one who let himself forget. That was _intentional_. But - well, there was only so much he could take it. After a while, he realized trying to disappear inside his own head to block everything out wasn’t going to work, and it was forcing him to associate anything Orochimaru did to him with home, which was awful, so the alternative was just to force himself to block that out, too. Orochimaru wanted his body. Sasuke should’ve just killed himself, cut off that capability and saved everyone the trouble, because inevitably he’s still going to be a target, and who’s to say he won’t fall for the same trick twice? Obviously he’s not all that strong.

They all got training from a legendary sannin. He was just lucky enough that his came complimentary with torture and brainwashing.

Sakura asks quietly, “Are you done?” and she was the image he gave up first.

“Yeah,” he says, and tries not to think about how Naruto just should have shoved a Rasengan through his heart when he had the chance.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The matter of Sasuke's return is less about helping him, and more about how he could best be of use.

Uchiha Sasuke is a godsend, Tsunade decides on the boy’s second day back. Orochimaru may have gotten him to forget his old home life, but he terrified the kid to the point that rehabilitation is twice as easy as anyone expected. More than that, his memories return in pieces quick enough that he has no problem giving up sensitive information.

Their strategy in dealing with him is simple: keep him around faces he knows. He’s possibly the calmest person in the hospital psych ward, and definitely has the most visitors, but he went to the same psychologist for five years, and she gives Team Seven enough free time to be in and out as much as they want, so the option was available. As she’s healed his eyes before, he already knew her too; it’s something of the perfect system. On the third day, they already removed the chakra dampeners, and the only time he activated the Sharingan was with Hatake Kakashi in the room to make sure he didn’t have a negative reaction over it.

Of course, there are some parts of his time in Otogakure he still keeps hidden, but she’ll allow that. As she’s the one who went over his body, she didn’t need a verbal assessment to tell her what happened to the boy. Orochimaru always had been a little odd, even as a kid, but when they were teammates, she never would have believed him the sort of person to do anything like this.

Now it’s the final day of observation, and she can safety say Sasuke’s all right to leave. There are moments he still doesn’t react to his own name, and his memory isn’t perfect, but they’re as good as they need to be. Back at the hospital, Sakura and Naruto should be getting him out by now, and being in familiar surroundings should help bring him back to himself at least to the point of allowing him to sleep, if not decreasing the panic attacks. During his stay, he had three, and she’s not at all surprised he doesn’t like people touching him.

Removing him isn’t a process the Hokage needs to be there for, as she already signed the proper paperwork to get him out, which gives her time to deal with a more pressing issue. What’s Konoha going to do with him? It’s a valid question. While it doesn’t take a psychologist to understand “history of mental instability” has shifted solidly to “unstable,” the truth remains that he’s a brilliant shinobi, and Orochimaru wants him. Quite desperate, it would seem. Sakura would kill her if she knew Tsunade even let this thought cross her mind, but Sasuke is the perfect bait. Or, at the very least, the only person here who knows his way around Otogakure. From the sketches he made for them, she can already see why her men had such trouble getting inside, and if what he says is accurate, then it seems like his Sharingan can pick up the majority of the traps.

Orochimaru should’ve been more careful with the hostage loyal to the village he wants to destroy. Really. It’s such an unbelievably drastic oversight that Tsunade’s actually embarrassed for him. Did her he genuinely think they _wouldn’t_ get him back? There are more than a few people here who’d rather have just killed him, but this is better. It would’ve been wrong, sending out a hit on someone who could be saved, and she refuses to run Konoha that way. And what a good thing, too. Her told teammate plans to destroy her village and gain immortality, and essentially handed them a weapon against him.

This leaves her with two obstacles, though: the Council of Idiots, and Sasuke himself.

Clan prejudice runs rampant in all Shinobi villages, and Sasuke’s unlucky enough that his whole family crippled him with negative action at an early age. Unfortunately for everyone, it’s his kekkei genkai that got him noticed by the wrong people, and now he’s their way inside. There are already people on the Council who’re reluctant to let Naruto out knowing the Akatsuki is after him, and Tsunade can only imagine the reaction she’ll receive explaining she wants both boys on the same team sent after Orochimaru. Maybe she can fudge the psychology reports just a smidgen (for the greater good), and remind them that Naruto and Sasuke have the power to keep each other in check. Sakura is nothing to frown at, either, but she tends to be dismissed just as quickly under the grounds that she comes from a civilian family. If she and Sasuke end up marrying one day, their children are already screwed.

Then there’s Sasuke. For the greater good or not, she knows that his instability would pose a very real problem on the field. According to his psychologist, recovery will be long, but not impossible, and the trauma will never just go away - the same diagnosis as after the failed uprising, apparently. He might not have the mental capacity to handle anything beyond a normal daily routine. There’s also the possibility that he won’t be comfortable as a shinobi anymore, and she has no right to force him into it. Of course, that’s a lot of natural talent gone to waste, but even the Hokage can’t make that decision for another person.

Tomorrow, she decides. Tomorrow she’ll speak with Sakura, and the day after speak with Sasuke, and together, they’ll figure it out. If it means stopping the destruction of Konoha at the hands of her old teammate, Tsunade is willing to do what it takes, even if it means the boy doesn’t make it out of here intact.

This might make her no better than Orochimaru, in the end, but she’s the Godaime of Konoha, and it’s up to her to keep this village safe.

 

 

There are scars on Sasuke’s left arm in shape of twenty-one tally marks he won’t talk about. Sakura doesn’t ask, and tries her hardest not to look, because while he was in the hospital she washed all his old clothes, and almost every shirt he owned had short sleeves. So, a light blue t-shirt it is, and it does nothing to hide the scarring. Though there are a few others here or there, these are the most glaringly obvious because they were most definitely not gained in a battle. These weren’t accidental. And they’re just on his left arm, which means he did them to himself.

At some point she might be brave enough to ask. Right now she’s content to be too afraid to even look.

If he notices her not-looking, he doesn’t let on. Or maybe he really doesn’t, because he doesn’t seem to be noticing much. “Do you recognize everything?” Naruto asks as she fixes up something for lunch, figuring that maybe Sasuke might want to eat something home cooked rather than hospital food and take out. “I mean, the table’s different, but everything else’s the same, right, Sakura?”

“And the stuff,” she says. “I’ve been living here for two years, so there’s more of me around than you’re used to, Sasuke.”

She hasn’t asked if he’s comfortable with her staying still. According to Tsunade, the psychologist treating him said he shouldn’t be left alone, especially at night. So far he hasn’t made a comment on wanting a change in the situation, which she supposes is probably a good thing.

Then again, she and Naruto were here so often, and Sasuke’s memory’s so fuzzy that maybe he thinks it was always this way, because all he says is, “Oh. Okay.”

Tonight, she’s going to sleep on the couch, and give him the bed. Just brushing up against him has caused him to seize up a couple of times. “Do you want to go on a walk later?” she says. “It’s pretty quiet around five.”

He fixes the collar of his shirt, which is sliding now that it’s slightly too big, and tugs it over where the cursed seal used to be. “Okay,” he says again, and looks up from the table. “Did we ever fight shinobi-for-hire?” he adds. “From Takigakure?”

It takes her a second to recognize the way he’s looking at her, because it was never one commonly sent her way. His face is blank, but his eyes are calculating - he’s testing them. After sharing a glance with Naruto, who may or may not have seen this, she answers, “Sort of. They were from Tanigakure, though. Missing-nin with scratched forehead protectors.”

Some tension leaves his shoulder, and his eyes go out of focus again. “Yeah,” he says. “You’re right.”

“We bonded over shitty nutrient bars,” Naruto adds. “Remember? ‘Cause we were stuck there for like a week in a tent.”

To Sakura’s complete shock, that actually manages to get them a smile. A small one that barely even counts, sure, but a smile is still a smile. “That’s where you decided to become a medical-nin, right?” he says.

“Yeah, right before I asked you out.”

“You kissed me in a tree.”

“You two kissed in a _tree_?” Naruto says, looking between the two of them, and grabbing plates of food to bring over to the table while she goes for the cups. “Why didn’t you ever tell me that?”

Shrugging, Sakura answers, “Too busy the exams, I guess,” because she doesn’t want to say it didn’t feel important enough to have a conversation over at the time. Right now, anything Sasuke remembers is important, but back then, the transition between friends and dating was so simple the ordinary acts of a couple weren’t cause for celebration. Now she doesn’t even know where they stand, though that should be the least of her concerns.

For a second, Sasuke just stares at the food, and then something seems to click because he picks up his chopsticks just fine, and his gaze snaps back to focused. Tsunade says he’ll heal, eventually, but he’s memory’s so haphazard Sakura just doesn’t understand how. Using genjutsu on him probably didn’t help, as much as did speed up the process.

He pulls at his shirt again. Does it once, twice, and starts to pick at his food. “Are my sheets still blue?” he asks, and she wonders why, of all details involving his apartment, he would remember _that_.

As he sits down, Naruto says, “Duh, what did you think she’d do, replace it with pink?”

“You’d lose me in pink sheets,” she says, and joins them. “Mostly everything’s the same, Sasuke.”

“Why?”

“What, you think we didn’t know we were absolutely going to get you back?” Naruto says, and Sasuke looks down at his food.

When he doesn’t answer, Sakura can’t think of anything to say, and it seems like Naruto can’t either. It doesn’t seem like Sasuke’s silence is supposed to be taken as a “yes, that’s exactly what I thought” or anything. More just like he got caught in his head. This happened a lot in the hospital, too.

Naruto was telling the truth, when he said they knew they’d get Sasuke back. Considering the medical report, Sakura feels like they were too late.

 

 

It’s night, and no one’s screaming. Sasuke never thought he’d have trouble sleeping because of silence.

For some reason, Sakura decided to give him the bed, and opted to crash on the couch, but every time he opens his eyes, he’s expecting her to be there. That’s his one clearest memory, just having her next to him. Is she scared of him now? He’s a little scared of himself, so it’s not like he’d blame her. Naruto’s more casual around him, but they weren’t the ones dating. And his friends - if they still are his friends - still don’t know what he can do now, what he has done. He’s not the Sasuke he half-remembers anymore. Someone ripped his mind out, shook it all up, and shoved it back inside him.

At least he’s back now. And he confirmed this wasn’t some trick earlier. A memory he has matches up with theirs, and they corrected him when purposely made a mistake, so there’s that, too. This is real. He’s home. He’s _safe_. No more Orochimaru, or Kabuto, or going blind. No more weird experiments, or solitary confinement, or being some stress-reliever, or dealing with lies. No more hearing unfortunate test subject screaming. Here no one’s going to hurt him, not unless he’s allowed out again and goes out on a mission. Konoha doesn’t believe in any of that. Hell, they sent a rescue mission out for him after two years when he’d already built up a reputation.

All right, so maybe thinking about comparisons isn’t such a great idea. This isn’t making him feel any better. Rather than making him feel safe, it’s just recalling back all the bullshit he had to deal with for the past two years.

The knock on the door comes as a surprise, and he’s upright in bed with a kunai in hand before he can stop himself. Konoha. Bedroom. Old apartment once shared with Itachi, now with Sakura. Right. _Safe_.

Though her voice is muffled through the wood, he can still hear Sakura clear enough when she asks, “Can I come in, Sasuke?”

For some reason, people have been saying his name way more than they used. “Yeah,” he answers, keeping his voice steady, and slips the kunai back underneath the pillow before she enters.

She looks older than two years ago, which is only to be expected, but she’s still just as beautiful as always. Orochimaru liked to prod, make sure Sasuke’s body was up to standard, and the last thing he wanted was to start associating that with Sakura. So, she had to go.

That’s when he started blocking out Konoha.

“I’ve gotten really good at sensing chakra levels,” she tells him, taking a seat at the edge of his bed without touching him. “Yours have been up and down the past couple of hours. What’s keeping you awake?”

He hadn’t anticipated that she’d still be up, or that he’d be keeping her up, but the apology dies before it even forms. From the look on her face, it’s clear she doesn’t want one. “Just not used to sleeping, I guess,” he says instead. “Sorry for taking up your bed.”

Shaking her head, she says, “It’s yours, not mine. I’m fine with the couch.”

After a moment of hesitation, he says, “We could share. Like we used to.”

“Will you be okay with that?”

For a moment, he shuts his eyes, pictures chakra coils and auras instead of definite shapes, and waking up to hazy light and darkness. “Yeah,” he says, opening them again. “I’m fine if you are.”

That seems to decide it, and she stands, moving the covers up and slipping under them. In the moonlight coming through the thin curtains, her green eyes are the color of leaves. He lies back down, pulling the blankets to his chin, and forces himself not to flinch when she reaches over to brush his hair out of his face. “I’m right here,” she says quietly. “Nothing’s going to hurt you, Sasuke.”

“I know, I just -”

Before he can finish, she slides right past his comfort zone, arms around him, leg hooked around his knees, and the panic fades quickly. She’s warm, and concrete, and an explosion of unfortunate color that still smells like her flowery shampoo. Like home.

He’s _home_.

“Thanks,” he says, voice so small it might as well note even be real, and wraps himself around her, too.

Half an hour later and he falls asleep earlier than he has in two years.

 

 

At first he and Tsunade got off on a rough start, but Naruto likes her a lot now. Really! He totally heard her say he’s the future Hokage, and then she took Sakura as an apprentice, and even allowed a rescue mission for Sasuke instead of calling an assassination. But it still takes a lot of effort not to absolutely burst when she drops by the apartment after work hours, in the middle of them trying to get Sasuke to eat dinner, to ask him if he still wants to be a shinobi.

Okay, so Naruto might not be known for being the smartest person in the world, but he does get that his friend was literally fucking torture into captive-bonding, and he deserves a break. He didn’t doesn’t even remember everything.

Sakura doesn’t seem much happier, her hands balling up into fists at her side, and even with his mask on, Kakashi looks pretty horrified. “Well, it’s all I know how to do,” Sasuke answers, making things worse. “I wasn’t aware I’d be allowed to continue.”

“You haven’t shown any signs of loyalty to Orochimaru -” Sasuke’s flinch isn’t too noticeable, but Naruto still picks up on, and how can anyone think he’s okay to even pick up a kunai when there are words he’s having trouble hearing? “- or Otogakure since you’ve begun to regain your memories. The choice is yours, but I see no reason to remove you from active duty.”

It’s not that Naruto wants his best friend gone from the team or anything, but he was with Sasuke a lot when they were ten. He’d, like, faint at the sight of blood, and people raising their voices too high got him to retreat into his head. Back then Naruto thought it was weird he and Itachi were continuing as shinobi, but if Sasuke was that bad at ten after seeing a family that treated him like shit die, then he’s going to be a thousand times worse now. The fuck’re they going to do if he retreats into his own head on the middle of a mission? This is _dangerous_.

This could easily get Sasuke killed. Or worse.

There’s a really long silence before he says, “I want to. I just need someone to be able to heal my eyes. Uh, I’d rather not go blind again.”

“Sakura is skilled enough by now that I have full confidence she can do so,” Tsunade says. “Isn’t that right, Sakura?”

“Yes,” Sakura answers, and her whole face is pinched. Probably she’s thinking along the same lines that Naruto is.

If they’re going to do this, they better not be shoved off on missions right away, because Orochimaru’s probably got eyes everywhere. It’s pretty unlikely that he’d just give Sasuke up like this, so he must -

No. No way, no one would do that. Tsunade is _not_ about to use his friend as bait. Even if Orochimaru does want to destroy Konoha, there has to be some other way than dangling Sasuke in front of him. It’s like Sai being sent to kill him, but even that was this bad.

Maybe Sasuke’s put this together himself, maybe he hasn’t because he’s mind still fuzzy, but all he does is nod. “I’ll do it,” he says. “Will I be able to stay with team, or is that disbanded now that we’re all chuunin?”

“Team Kakashi is still fully formed,” Tsunade answers. “The decision is yours, Hatake. Is Sasuke one of yours?”

Kakashi says, oh yes, of course, he’s not giving up one of his own, and Sasuke relaxes. At least this means they can all keep an eye on him. If Orochimaru gets within a mile of them, Naruto doesn’t even care what mission they’re on - he’ll kill the guy with the Rasengan himself. Orochimaru is never going to get his hands on Sasuke again.

As she slides over a Konoha forehead protector, Tsunade says, “Welcome back, Uchiha Sasuke,” and Naruto wonders how long it’ll take for this to explode in their faces.

 

 

Even though it’s obvious no one likes that Tsunade reinstated him into service (and that he agreed), Sasuke finds he isn’t bothered by it. He went missing for two years, and then spent seven days in a psych ward. If they want to be worried, they can be worried. In a reversed situation, he knows he would do the same thing, so this isn’t exactly a blow to his pride. And he doesn’t have much of that left anyway.

Reminding himself of this is harder than it should be when Kakashi snags him the night before their first official team meet up since he’s been reinstated, which will complete with Sai, a guy originally sent to kill him. Who he used the Sharingan on. Yeah, this is going to go over great. It’s not that he minds that someone called a hit on him, really, since that’s about what he expected. He just isn’t up to watching someone be skittish around him anymore, and what he did was bad enough that Sai actually cried.

The Sharingan is the cause behind the separate meeting, too, he finds out quick enough. “You need to get used to seeing mine in a fight,” Kakashi tells him, dropping his pack on the ground. “It might not have been meant to harm you, but I still did use it on you. Genjutsu trauma’s a common side effect.”

When he was a kid, Itachi used the Sharingan on him more than to get him out of flashbacks, and it never bothered him then. “I’ll be fine.”

“On the off chance you aren’t, would you rather find out now, or tomorrow when I repeat the bell test with all of you?”

As Sasuke activates his own, he says, “Fine. Try me.”

Kakashi pushes up his forehead protector, and Sasuke doesn’t realize until after nothing happens that he really was half anticipating a reaction. He had sort of screamed. A lot. “I’m fine,” he says. “Maybe it works better on other Sharingan users.”

With a shrug, Kakashi says, “I wouldn’t know. Just needed to be sure you wouldn’t panic during a fight.”

“You don’t think this is a good idea, do you?”

By now, Sasuke thinks he at least remembers almost everything about his team, since he’s started recalling little details like Naruto’s favorite color (orange, for some reason), or that time Sakura punched Mako Kiku in the face for making fun of her forehead when they were twelve. He remembers a lot about Kakashi, too, and Sasuke can say with relative certainty that the only other time he’s treated him this delicately was right after he received the mark. For Naruto and Sakura, they’re just worried, but this goes deeper than that.

After Kakashi hides the Sharingan again, he says, “I think you should be a shinobi again, considering what you can do, but it’s too soon. Itachi had longer off than this after what happened with your family. I was an Anbu a long time - people who have to deal with reverse captive bonding usually have more than a two week grace period.”

Every time he hears the words “captive bonding,” Sasuke feels like he needs to take an hour long shower. What happened between him and Orochimaru wasn’t bonding. “I wouldn’t even be offered if there wasn’t a motive behind it,” he says. “You know that too. I’m willing to be bait.”

“There are other ways to stop an eventual attack on Konoha than to put you in Orochimaru’s path,” Kakashi says, irritation slipping into his voice. “You gave us a way into Otogakure. That’s a start.”

“Half those traps only I can get past.”

“Sasuke.”

He looks down at the ground, and scuffs his foot against the dirt. This isn’t how he wanted the conversation to go down. “Orochimaru doesn’t have a lot of time left in the body he’s in,” he says. “Without me there, he going to have to settle for someone new. But right now he’s weak, at the easiest to get rid of. I have to do something.”

In Otogakure, Sasuke killed more people than he can count. More than once they’d send him after men numbering a small army, and he’d come back bloodless with failing eyes. He needs a way to return to normal after that, and it’s not as though he’s physically injured. His mind’s just a little crooked, that’s all.

Sighing, Kakashi says, “You didn’t defect, Sasuke, you were taken. You don’t owe anyone anything.”

“I’ll be fine,” he says again. “Just, can you promise me something?” After Kakashi warily says he will, Sasuke continues, “Don’t let him get me again.”

When Kakashi touches the top of his head, he somehow manages not to cringe. “I’ll never give him the chance. I promise,” he answers, and the protests end there.

Shinobi are just weapons, after all, but even broken blades can make a person bleed.

 

 

Despite Sasuke basically being proclaimed the cheese for a mousetrap, Team Seven doesn’t get any missions right away. The Akatsuki is making enough trouble that Naruto needs to hang back and learn how to control wind-based chakra as a new form of defense, and with nothing else to do, Sasuke comes along. After all, if his friend over exerts himself, he’s the only one here who can shut down the Kyuubi before anything gets out of control.

He starts losing thread of what’s going on halfway through Kakashi explaining about Kage Bunshin learning tactics, but his concentration is abruptly restored when he hears, “Like Sasuke.”

So, he might have lost himself for a moment, but at least he’s getting better at reacting to his own name. “What?”

“I’m explaining nature transformations,” Kakashi answers, still acting as uncomfortably patient with him as he has been since Sasuke returned. “To be a jonin, you need full control of more than one. You’re one of the few chuunin I know at the moment who can work with even two.”

“Three.”

“What?”

“I can use three, not two.”

Within his first six months in Otogakure, Orochimaru explained all of them to him, though it didn’t take as long. In retrospect, there was a part of him that must’ve remembered Kakashi’s lesson. Naruto, on the other hand, is having a lot of trouble from the looks of it, and Sasuke can tell he just made the frustration worse. “What do you mean, three?” his friend says. “How come you’re jonin level already?”

Yeah, like anyone in Konoha would actually let another Uchiha become a jonin. Then again, maybe they will next year, and shove him straight into Anbu where he’ll hide behind a mask and expect to behave. “It’s a higher form of the fire transformation,” he says. “The Mangekyo Sharingan opens its own nature transformation. It’s a kekkei genkai.”

Scrunching up his forehead, Naruto says, “You mean the thing with the flames and your eyes that Itachi could do?” Sasuke nods. “Oh.”

He fiddles with a loose thread at the hem of his shirt. The Amaterasu accelerates blindness, so of course his friends know about it. When Itachi first got glasses, Sasuke certainly ranted about it enough for it to stick. As they worked together for a while and he has a Sharingan of his own, Kakashi must know it too, so Sasuke’s relieved when he changes the subject and asks, “Can you combine them?”

Again, Sasuke nods. Naruto just frowns. “Any pointers?” he asks. “Because this is taking way too long.”

“I don’t really know anything about wind,” he answers, “and if Kakashi can’t think of anything, I probably can’t. But I guess show me the Rasengan, and I’ll try.”

Pure chakra swirls around in Naruto’s palm, and Sasuke already has it recorded how to do it. Presumably Kakashi does too. “No idea,” Sasuke says after a minute. “When I learned the Chidori, I mostly just worked on changing the shape.”

“Eh, it was worth a shot,” his friend says. “I better figure something out quick, though. Then we can go on missions together again.”

If it were up to Kakashi, they’d wait longer than the week it’ll probably take, but all Naruto does is smile. Sasuke hopes his friend figures something out soon, too, because he wants this to finally be over.

 

 

It’s Sasuke’s first mission, and he’s not even with Team Kakashi. Well, there’s Kakashi. But that’s about it. Then there’s Team...Eight? New dilemma: he remembers the most random details about people or things, but not necessarily names.

This might be harder to deal with if they weren’t facing down two immortal Akatsuki members because Asuma (who he vaguely remembers as another jonin) died and his team wants to avenge him, so they’re all a little too preoccupied to notice Sasuke only remembers Shikamaru. “Take care of Kakuzu. He has five hearts, but he can be killed,” he tells Kakashi. “I’ll handle Hidan.”

While it’s robbing the others of their revenge, Sasuke’s the only one here who can effectively get rid of him, and he knows this because Orochimaru made him memorize every Akatsuki member who was there when he was part of it. These two were included in that count. Unfortunately, they seem to know who he is, too, because Hidan says, “Hey, he’s got the Sharingan. Aren’t you Orochimaru’s new bitch? What’re you doing with these guys?”

Sasuke ignores them, though Team Possibly Eight gives him a look that’s more off putting than anything else. “You didn’t see what he can do,” Shikamaru says. “You can’t handle him on his own.”

“You should listen to your friend, boy,” Kakuzu says, and if Shikamaru and Girl Who Runs a Flower Shop just backed up, Sasuke could’ve handled this by now. They’re shinobi, meant to attack, not just stand around and talk about how they’re going to kill each other. This is why he needs all of Team Kakashi. “We were on the attack force to capture Uchiha Itachi. Your eyes don’t frighten us.”

 _Bandaged eyes, unresponsive, sorry I couldn’t get him back in better condition, kid, he won’t last the night_ -

A shuriken flies past his head, aimed for Kakuzu, and Kakashi says, “Sasuke, he’s all yours.”

Finally, the others back up, ready to back Kakashi up, and Sasuke moves, feinting an attack with a Chidori senbon, which only allows Hidan to dodge so many ways. Shikamaru shouts, “Uchiha, to your right!” but Sasuke’s already on it.

Hidan disappears in a blink, and a scream, because even immortality can’t save a person from a dimensional shift.

Immediately, Sasuke’s eyes burn, but he doesn’t have time to do anything about it, because then an arm barely attached to its body is coming towards him. Displacing someone isn’t something he can do more than once at any given time, so he does the next best thing, and releases Amaterasu, black flames through the flesh and muscle and racing towards the source.

When it doesn’t work, Sasuke’s not surprised. He killed him, but it takes five deaths, and combined with Kakashi’s, that’s only two. “Try not to overuse your eyes,” he tells him, and Sasuke doesn’t have the chance to say he can do way more than this, because the rest of Team Kakashi finally appears to save the day.

Suddenly, Sasuke realizes that he really, really missed working with a team, and it’s a good feeling knowing there’s someone there to have your back.

 

 

Naruto won singlehandedly, and it was amazing, but now both he and Sasuke are injured, and Sakura thinks she might just kill them both for it. “Your hand is unusable for the next few days due to fractures, though I’m sure your accelerated healing should help,” she tells Naruto before turning her attention to their friends. “How are you eyes? This is my first time working with sight issues.”

According to Ino, he threw someone into a separate dimension and used Amaterasu (or, as the other girl put it “got the first guy to disappear, and then made black flames with his eyes, it was weird”) within five minutes of each other, which she doubts is good for him. “They feel fine,” he answers, and rubs his temple. “My vision is back to normal, too. Thanks. How’s your hand?”

“Useless, but the pain’s gone down,” Naruto says, holding up the cast. “Hey, who wants to go out to eat and watch me fail at using chopsticks with my left hand?”

“Do you want to get take out?” she says, glancing at Sasuke. “I don’t know about you, but I think I’d rather just have a night in.”

After three weeks, he’s getting better at doing more than being around the apartment, but he’s still not perfect. Today is evidence enough; he asked her about their old classmates’ names, and that was more shocking than it should’ve been. And it’s bothering him, too, she can tell. He hasn’t directly looking at either of them since he admitted it, and it’s been at least ten days since he started making eye contact again.

Naruto looks to Sasuke, who’s preoccupied with pulling his sleeves over his hands, and says, “Yeah, sure, why not?”

As he helped out, they should probably invite Sai, but Sakura doesn’t know if she can handle his I’m Trying to Learn to Be a Person thing in conjunction to trying to keep Sasuke present. So just the three of them it is. She doesn’t have all that much of a problem with that. This is how it always is with them, after all. It started out with them, it’ll probably end with them, too.

Looking at the two boys, one with his broken head and broken eyes, and the other with his shattered hand, Sakura wonders what the likelihood is of that ending being a good one. 


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Otogakure is an unfortunate place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In this, because of the modernized aspect, Otogakure is an actually Hidden Village rather than a series of hideouts and labs. This chapter is also basically a nonstop anxiety attack, and finally has some information on what Sasuke's time in Oto was like.

It’s not until he sees that his favorite cereal is almost empty that Naruto realizes he’s at Sakura and Sasuke’s more often than home now. “Sorry,” Iruka says, also noticing when the rice squares abruptly stops coming out. “I haven’t done a proper shopping trip in a while, I guess.”

Yesterday, Sakura bought this cereal. They have a stock-up of ramen in their apartment, too, and neither of them even _like_ ramen. “It’s fine,” Naruto says, grabbing the milk. “Sorry I haven’t been around more, Iruka.”

Before he went travelling with Jiraiya, he was at the apartment a lot, too, and even before they became genin, but now it’s just, like, doubled. Not only is it closer to pretty much everything they need, but he’s not going to leave them alone when Sasuke’s still struggling figure out what’s going on most days, and Sakura’s trying to keep up. She shouldn’t have to go through that alone, and mornings are really hard, so it’s just better for Naruto to be around to help. Like yesterday, when Sasuke woke up, and his first reaction was to hide under the covers because he was convinced nothing was real and it was Orochimaru playing mind games again.

But when did Naruto end up pretty much living there?

“You’ve been busy,” Iruka says, all calm and everything, like Naruto hasn’t just been in and out without so much as a hello most days. It’s bad enough he basically ran away for two years with just a phone call as a goodbye. “I understand. A-ranking missions aren’t easy.”

Even if that’s true, he’s around enough that he should be here more. With how nearly everyone in this town acts around him, he’s fully aware he could’ve ended with someone treated him horribly, and even if he’s eighteen, he should probably give Iruka more of a head’s up when he goes places. Iruka worries. A lot. Naruto knows that. Of all the things to give him an epiphany, he doesn’t know why it’s cereal that does it, but he should probably start staying at home at least sometimes. Or officially move out, so it’s less up in the air.

“Naruto?” Iruka’s voice shakes him out of his thoughts. “Are you feeling all right?”

“What? Oh, yeah,” Naruto answers, and pours the milk. “Just thinking. We’re getting sent out again tomorrow. With Team Gai, too.”

Iruka’s eyebrow twitches. “For Orochimaru?”

With a nod, Naruto says, “Obviously. Don’t know if it’s just a normal mission or it’s actually to Oto, but why _else_ would Sasuke get sent out this early?”

If he were younger, he’d have given the whole I Can’t Believe Sasuke’s Getting Used as Bait rant already, but he hasn’t been around long enough for that to happen. Actually, he hasn’t been around to tell Iruka that -

“ _Sasuke’s getting sent out?_ ”

Yeah, probably should’ve mentioned that earlier. It did happen, like, the second day. Wow, talk about a lack of a communication. “Uh, yeah,” he says. “Tsunade reinstated him pretty much right out of the psych ward. How fucked is that?”

“Language, Naruto.”

“I’m _eighteen_.”

Iruka gives him The Look. “Did he really recover that quickly?”

During the week Sasuke first returned, Naruto told Iruka everything. That just sort of...ended over the past month. Training to incorporate wind-based chakra into his Rasengan for a week straight really hadn’t helped. “Not really,” he answers. “Last mission we went on he was fine, but -”

“The two of you have already gone on a mission together?” Iruka says, and god, when’s the last time they actually sat down and had a discussion about stuff? They need to go out for a movie or something. Or have a night in. Or do anything that doesn’t involve missions and worrying. “Naruto, why didn’t you tell me?”

Uncomfortable now, the best Naruto can do is shrug. “Every time I’m here you’re at the Academy,” he answers, suddenly very interested in his rice squares. “We went back to their apartment afterwards, and I don’t know. Sasuke was just really out of it, I didn’t want to leave them alone.”

He probably shouldn’t mention he fractured his wrist in about seven different places, because Iruka might have a heart attack. “How long did it take?” he asks. “Why didn’t you call me?”

“I was only out for a few hours,” he says, awkward. “Kakashi and Sasuke had taken care of most of it. Then I finished off the last one on my own. It was awesome.”

“Were they Akatsuki?”

“Um.”

“Oh, seriously?”

Really, he never meant to worry anyone, especially not over a bowl of cereal. It’s unfair to Iruka that he hadn’t gotten any information about this earlier, because he shouldn’t have to hear about this all at once. “Want to get a movie and, I don’t know, play cards tonight or something?” Naruto says, thinking he should probably do this before he gets all distracted again. Leaving out the person who’s practically his dad is just bad.

Frowning, Iruka says, “Don’t you have plans?”

Naruto shrugs. “It’s not like we ever really make actual plans. ‘Sides, they could use a night to themselves.”

“How are they doing? As a couple. Are they still dating?”

That’s actually a really good question, he realizes. Neither of them have said anything about it, and Naruto never really thinks of his friends as “a couple.” They’re just Sakura and Sasuke. “Well, they’re still together,” he says, because he’s sure of that much at least. After all, they do still sleep with each other. “Orochimaru just did a lot of really bad stuff to Sasuke, and he’s not even all that good at hugging people, so it’s not like they’re doing anything.”

There’s a really long pause before Iruka says, “Be careful on the mission, Naruto. Sasuke used to lash out if he panicked back in the Academy. I can’t imagine he’s any better with a flashback.”

No, he’s really not. Naruto’s freaked his friend out already by coming up too suddenly behind him, and nearly got a kunai to the heart because of it. “I know,” he says, and finishes up his cereal. “We’ve got precautions set up. Kakashi can snap him out of anything with his Sharingan if he has to. Anyway, I’ve got to go meet up with the team, but I’ll back later. I promise.”

“I’ll find us a movie,” Iruka says, and Naruto feels guilty at how doubtful he looks. “Be careful.”

Again, Naruto says he knows, and puts his dishes in the sink before leaving. Either he has to move out, or start including Iruka into his life more, because as of right now, this really isn’t fair.

He’ll bring the problem to Sakura after the mission, he decides, because she always knows what to do.

 

 

“Sakura, I’m going to be fine.”

“No, Sasuke, I’m sorry, but I don’t want you anywhere near that place ever again.”

Since Naruto ditched them to spend time with Iruka, it’s just her and Sasuke tonight, and Sakura thinks that’s probably a good thing because she’s about half a second away from punching something. Though she already knew her boyfriend’s reinstatement came with an ulterior motive, she wasn’t expecting them to just be shoved towards Otogakure this early. It’s been a month. A _month_. Then again, it could be a year and she still wouldn’t be comfortable.

No, she doesn’t want him within a hundred miles of the village’s borders. She doesn’t want him anywhere near Orochimaru, or Kabuto, or any Oto-nin. If Sasuke freezes up, and they get their hands on him, she’s never going to forgive herself.

To make it worse, Sasuke’s acting way too understanding about the whole thing. “I have the entire place memorized,” he tells her, grabbing her hands to stop her from pacing, and today’s one of his better days at least. “I can literally walk through the city with my eyes closed if I have to. Even if Kakashi has the Sharingan, too, we all know I’m the only way to get inside undetected.”

“They have to have a defense set up specifically against you, or -”

“No one can guard against a Mangekyo Sharingan who doesn’t have one themselves.”

That might be true, but this doesn’t mean she has to be happy about it. “Losing you like that almost killed us,” she says. “I can’t do it again. I can’t.”

One of his hands moves from hers to brush her hair from her face, and stays there. “I’m not going anywhere. I promise,” he says. “I love you, and I’ll kill whoever I have to in order to keep it that way.”

What he says and what he’s capable of doing are two very different things. Everything is still just guesswork with him, so who knows what he’ll do if he comes face to face with Orochimaru? He hurt Sasuke in ways Sakura doesn’t think she’ll ever understand - in ways she doesn’t want to. How is she supposed to let him walk right back in there? To risk getting captured? To risk losing all the progress they made?

She’s not expecting it when his hand suddenly slides through her hair, settling at the back of her head, before he leans down to kiss her. Ever since he returned, the most they’ve done is occasionally hold hands, and curl up together in their sleep on nights he can manage, but now she doesn’t hesitate in kissing back. His skin is cold, his lips chapped, and there’s a scar at his hairline that’s rough beneath her fingers.

When it finally ends, they don’t move away, forehead to forehead, and she’d forgotten how good it felt just to be this close to him. “I love you, Sasuke,” she tells him, “and whatever you have to do, you don’t have to do it alone.”

 

 

This is an assassination mission, and most of them are chuunin. Anbu are supposed to take care of jobs like this, not them, and Sasuke always wanted to be an Anbu. Here’s his Konoha initiation a full year early. Maybe when he gets back he should try for his jonin exam, just do things out of order. It’s not like he doesn’t fit the qualifications.

But first he has to make it through this without suffering from a mental break. That’s easier said than done. Sai’s judgmental eyes boring holes into his back is proof enough that Sasuke isn’t the only one without complete faith in himself, no matter what he told Sakura.

Normally he’s not much of a touchy person, and PDA on duty is just a bad idea, but no one comments when she takes his hand and doesn’t let go. Naruto settles at his other side, like he’s daring anyone to say anything about it. They’re pairing with Team Gai, who’re going to play watch at the perimeter while Team Kakashi go in, and Sasuke thought Lee would’ve by now. Or maybe he’s mixing up personalities with someone else, or maybe the guy just matured. A month apparently wasn’t enough time to fix his head. The fact that he pulled off kissing Sakura yesterday was a miracle.

Despite how much longer it’s going to take, going on foot is safer, which means it’s going to take about a week to get there. How wonderful.

There isn’t much talking the first day outside of Yamato and Kakashi discussing something in low voices, but at night Gai joins them and they call over Sasuke, forcing him to finally separate from his friends. He’s pretty sure they’re about to send him back, because even he’s beginning to think he can’t pull this off, but instead Kakashi says, “We need a plan, Sasuke.”

“Shouldn’t we have done this before we left?”

“You’ll learn when you’re a jonin,” Yamato says, “that unless it’s a short mission, it’s easier to plan on the road than the comfort of an apartment. Your thinking is sharper.”

Sasuke guesses he can see the logic in that, but he feels more jumpy than anything else when he takes a seat next to Kakashi. A copy of the map he drew for Tsunade sits in the middle of their circle. “Neji should be able to pick up the cameras, seals, and trip wires around the outer perimeter,” Sasuke says, making a conscious effort to sit still. “There’s a system like Konoha’s set up around the edge that can detect the number of people entering, but I can get past that easily. You can pick up on it with the Sharingan, but it’s not chakra, so Neji can’t.”

What he’s neglected to mention to, well, everyone, is that this is because he literally designed it. The barrier used to be a replica of Konoha’s, but Sasuke’s always been smart, and everyone important in Otogakure knows it. Within the first six months, he’d adapted it to include an imperfect variation of how the Sharingan can see movement, making it more effective - and, unfortunately for everyone there, completely useless against him. Orochimaru won’t know that, and apparently never predicted Sasuke would remember enough about his time in Konoha to hesitate during a fight and get captured.

Not captured. Rescued. Even if he did design Otogakure’s defense system, Kakashi’s right; it was a kidnapping, not defecting. But that doesn’t make Sasuke feel like he owes Konoha any less. That barrier got a good number of Konoha-nin, or Konoha’s allies, caught and killed.

Gai asks, “Are you certain Orochimaru won’t have changed it?” and Sasuke nods. As no one there has the Sharingan, no one there knows _how_. “What’s the biggest obstacle, then?”

“Either the guards, or the security cameras,” Sasuke answers. “Between Neji, Kakashi, and I, we’ll be able to pick up on all of them, but try to avoid engaging the guards in a fight if you can. Not only will they raise an alarm, but almost all of them will have a mark, and you don’t want to see Stage Two. I can take them out pretty easily if I catch them by surprise, but that’s only because I’m used to them, and it’s impossibly to guard against an electrified blade.”

His kenjutsu is his own style, too, but Orochimaru and Kabuto both know it. The others not so much. Kakashi says, “Any advice?”

“Speed. Try to get them out before they can alert anyone.” It’s still better if they avoid them altogether. “Most of the entrances to Otogakure lead underground, with the exception of the main gate. There are areas on the wall less heavily watched than others, though, and it would be safer for Team Gai to come from above. If there’s a sign we’re about to be caught, you can cause a diversion and lead them as far away from us as possible. Try out of the city if you can. Two people should also stay at the entrance we’re going to take. Yamato, can you and Sai handle it?”

After exchange a look with Kakashi, Yamato says, “It’ll be safer if it’s Sai and Sakura. A four man cell down there should consist of as many jonin as we can manage.”

Shaking his head, Sasuke says, “We need a medic with us. If my eyesight goes down there, fine, but if we encounter Kabuto, or Orochimaru releases poison, she’s going to be our best defense. And if you’re worried about Naruto losing control, I can cut off the Kyuubi’s chakra before anything happens.”

The one person they really don’t want down there is him, and he knows it, but he’s their guide. He’s the only one that definitely has to be. And he needs the original Team Seven together for more reasons than he’s giving, though Kakashi can probably guess. If Sasuke loses it, they’re the ones who can snap him out of a panic attack. Or worse.

“We can guard the entrance,” Yamato says, and doesn’t seem to happy about it. “How quickly will you be able to find Orochimaru?”

“It shouldn’t take all that long,” Sasuke says. “I spent a while walking this place either close to blind, or with my Sharingan activated. Shortcuts made life easier.”

That doesn’t really answer the question the way Yamato was likely expecting, but Sasuke doesn’t care. He’s not up to admitting he lived in Orochimaru’s house, or that since he’ll be bedridden with his current body giving out, Sasuke knows where they have to go. It’s not like he doesn’t know the exact route to Orochimaru’s room or anything.

Great, they’re still a solid six days away, and the anxiety is already building.

Kakashi’s looking at him in a way that means Sasuke isn’t hiding anything. “The four of us together,” he says. “You’re sure we’ll be able to take him out? This is the man who killed the last Hokage in a decaying body.”

“Positive.” With the state Orochimaru must be in by now, Sasuke could probably take him out alone. “Gai, if you’re discovered, don’t let Lee fight alone. He’s good enough he’ll force his opponent into Stage Two, so you need to make sure they’re dead before they can progress. Ninjutsu is a lot faster than taijutsu.”

If Gai’s offended, he doesn’t show it. “My team will handle anything quickly and efficiently,” he says, and Sasuke just hopes that’s true. “Are we taking out the cameras, looping them, or avoiding them altogether?”

“This is my first time doing anything like this. I have no idea which is the most effective.”

Back when he was in Otogakure, he’d done his fair share of assassinations, but never with a team. Orochimaru liked him working alone, and being alone makes it a lot easier to avoid security systems. Kakashi asks, “Is there a way to control them before entering the barrier? I know how to create a loop.”

Again, Sasuke shakes his head. He’s absolutely not surprised Kakashi knows how to work a security system. “There’s a control panel from within the walls, though. We’ll have to take out the guards, but we can do that first. Is there anything else?”

There’s probably a lot more, but Kakashi jumps in before anyone else can. “We’ll discuss how we’ll actually take out Orochimaru later,” he says. “Get some sleep.”

Whether or not he’ll be able to sleep is debatable, but Sasuke still gets up to join the others. Halfway across the clearing, he hears Gai ask, “Are we sure he can handle this?” in a quiet enough voice that Sasuke definitely wasn’t meant hear it.

Just one week, he tells himself. One week and this will all be over.

 

 

Making it through the outer barrier takes five hours, and Sasuke really shouldn’t have designed it so well. Konoha’s is hard to trick, but it’s stationary, and the inevitable cracks never move. No protection is ever perfect; this one’s just flows the way chakra will under genjutsu, so the fishers are unpredictable, and undetectable to anyone without a Sharingan. If he’d had just kept his fucking mouth shut a year and a half ago and didn’t comment how easy it was to get through, this would’ve been so much faster.

It’s about one now, and this isn’t the sort of mission he wants done at night. For him, fine. For everyone else, not so much.

Between he, Neji, and Kakashi, they manage to get everyone through the mass surveillance around the village without tripping anything, or alerting anyone.  Otogakure is in a sparsely wooded area, and unlike the Land of Fire, finding cover for ten is difficult. While a party this large is necessary for the number of times they’re going to need to split, Sasuke would’ve been way more comfortable with the side of the original Team Kakashi. Getting around the traps and cameras would’ve been harder without Neji, sure, but they could’ve managed, and sneaking in four is easier than ten. It also decreases the number of people who can be killed on this mission.

The service door to inside the walls is normal and unassuming, just a simple metal one with _Private Property: Trespassing_ written near the middle. Every shinobi with half a brain knows how to pick a lock, but everyone decided collectively yesterday that he has to be the one to do it, since he’s dealt with the ones in Oto before, and they need to be quick enough not to get caught on camera. This would be so much easier if he knew who was on guard duty today, because then he could just turn into the next one and add the punch code. Otogakure is so genuinely disorganized that it’s not all that uncommon for people to show up before schedule.

And this is how, at one in the afternoon, with the sun shining down bright as a spotlight over his head, Sasuke ends up crouched next to the service door picking the lock. There’s only a twenty second window before the camera comes back in this direction, and he has ten left. Somewhere out in the tree line, the others are waiting for him, and there’s a guard he didn’t recognize on the walls above them currently caught in one of his genjutsu that Team Gai will have to take out after they loop the cameras. It’s the girl’s own fault she got trapped that easily. His face is well known, the walls are relatively low, and the idiot actually went and looked him in the eye.

Then again, people get past his barrier so rarely that wall duty is D-ranking genin punishment, not a real job. That girl was probably fifteen. Maybe even younger. Otogakure doesn’t care about age.

With three seconds to spare, he makes it inside, shutting the door quickly behind him, and getting out of the way. Another thirty seconds go by, and Kakashi joins him. “We both made it,” he says quietly into his communicator. “You’ll hear from us again it’s safe.”

Gai and Yamato both reply affirmative, and then it’s up to Sasuke to lead the way. There are cameras down here, of course, but not ones of the best quality, and their positions haven’t changed. About a year ago, he copied a Shunshin technique off a Kiri-nin, and Kakashi, like any jonin, knows the Konoha version, and that’s enough to get past without their images being picked up. Neither of them talk, and the communicators stay silent. Sasuke thinks that’s probably a good sign.

Like the service door, the one they need is a simple metal one with equally simple writing: _Security Center_. And unlike the service door, the camera is stationary. “Do you trust me, Kakashi?” he asks, not looking away from the door.

“Yes,” Kakashi answers, “but as your squad leader, I think I should know what you’re plan is.”

Sasuke reaches up and unties his forehead protector. “I’m going to knock on the door,” he says, deactivating his Sharingan.

“But -”

“Literally no one comes down here without clearance,” he says, “and anyone whose image I know well enough to take would never actually come themselves. And those cameras pick up heat signatures, an Iwa-nin camouflage jutsu wouldn’t work. Kakashi, I know what I’m doing. They’ll just think I returned and didn’t get the memo.”

There’s an unfortunately long pause before Kakashi says, “I’ll be ready.”

Seven steps and he’s at the door, right under the camera’s view, and he knocks hard, pretending he can’t feel his heartbeat in his throat. It opens faster than he expects, and he’s immediately face to face with the lead security guard, though the other man working with him is looking straight ahead too.

“When did _you_ get back?” the guard asks, and Sasuke realizes with rush of horror that he knows this voice. “What are you doing -”

His name was Akiyama Hiro, he was twenty-seven, and his sister Mamoru spent an entire year trying to get Sasuke’s attention. They weren’t friends, but they talked. They met down here, when Sasuke took out a couple Ame-nin who lucked out and managed to get through a fisher in his barrier, and had a conversation about tomatoes and girls for almost a solid hour while waiting for a clean up crew for the bodies. Once Hiro even invited him around for dinner, which Sasuke declined, because Orochimaru didn’t like him going out. Sharing wasn’t really his thing.

Now Hiro’s in a heap on the floor, bleeding from his neck, and Sasuke throws the same kunai at the other man before he can hit the button for the alarm, burying it in his chest. As he looks down at bodies, it takes more effort than it should for Sasuke to remind himself he’s a chuunin of Konoha, and this wasn’t treason.

Kakashi’s hand finds his shoulder, and pushes him down into a chair. “Just take a moment,” he says. “I’m guess you knew them?”

“One of them.” The likelihood that he was going to was high - he had no friends, but he certainly talked to people, and being one of Orochimaru’s top men meant he was down in the security sectors more than once. That’s how he knew he’d get the door open without an alarm. He just hadn’t expected it to be someone who liked him enough to invite him over for dinner.

Oh, god. Mamoru didn’t have any family but her brother. Sasuke ruined her life for the sake of gaining access to a room. These were people who trusted him, and he just -

No, no, _no_. He’s a Konoha-nin, this is a mission for the Godaime Hokage, it’s not treason because he’s _not_ part of Otogakure and never has been. Not really.

He’s so caught up in his own head that he almost attacks when Kakashi’s hand finds way onto his shoulder again. “Sasuke, I’m going to rework the system,” Kakashi says, “but I’ll keep talking, so focus on my voice. Just close your eyes, and listen to me, okay?”

As Sasuke shuts his eyes, Kakashi ties his forehead protector back on for him, and starts down memory lane. _I’m Uchiha Sasuke, age seventeen, little brother of Uchiha Itachi_ , he tells himself as Kakashi talks. _I’m a Konoha chuunin, member of Team Seven, my girlfriend is Haruno Sakura, and my best friend is Uzumaki Naruto. My mission is to assassinate Orochimaru._

By the time Kakashi is done, Sasuke doesn’t feel like a traitor anymore, but he doesn’t feel much better, either.

 

 

Kakashi never spared much thought to what Oto looked like. That’s probably a good thing, because he would’ve gotten it all wrong. The living quarters and markets are all above ground, but everything important is below, and it’s a maze. Without Sasuke, he doesn’t think it would possible to navigate it successfully, even with the map.

“Why is it like this?” Naruto asks, scurrying away from a patch of mildew he almost walked into. “Iruka would go into anaphylactic shock down here.”

“It’s so no one above ground can hear the screaming,” Sasuke answers. “I’ve told you, it’s less an academy and more a giant lab. Orochimaru’s the only one with living quarter’s below grounds. The upper levels it connects to are just meeting halls. Sai would recognize it.”

Sakura says, “And you’re sure the only one we might run into is Kabuto?”

Sasuke’s hand twitches. “He doesn’t trust anyone else inside his home. Occasionally there was this girl Karin who acts like an errand runner, but she more in charge of the Lab Three. Better hope she’s not in here, though. She’s good at sensing chakra, no matter how repressed it is.”

When they get out of this, Kakashi’s arguing for temporary discharge from service. Even if it’s just for a week or two. Seeing Sasuke when he first came back was bad enough, but watching him almost crack in the security room really brought home the reality that he isn’t ready for this. If he had that reaction to some random guy he knew, the reaction he’s going to have watching Orochimaru die is going to be horrible. As if it isn’t bad enough they’re already going to end up in the same room together.

Getting into the main house is almost disturbingly easy. It has the same barrier around it that the city itself has, and all it really takes it waiting to get through that. This time they don’t pick a lock, though, but punch in the code, and from the scowl on Sasuke’s face, Kakashi’s guessing the numbers don’t mean anything good. Once he passes by himself, and catches the overlapping fingerprints with his Sharingan that prove which numbers are pushed the most, he realizes they’re Sasuke’s birthday. It’s like Orochimaru is taunting him.

Killing him is going to be so incredibly satisfying, and Kakashi hasn’t thought that for a long, long time.

There isn’t much security in the house, but then again, the idea of anyone actually being able to make it this far seems very unlikely. It’s also making him feel incredibly useless; Sasuke leads them exclusively, as he has been, and at one point shuts his eyes to make it down a series of hallways.

He puts his hand up to stop them right as they hit the end of a hallway, and a voice Kakashi recognizes as Kabuto’s says, “Get some rest. I’ll be back in a few hours.”

The footsteps come in their direction, and Sasuke abruptly pushes open a door, shoving them inside, and shuts it just as quickly. For a moment, Kakashi is about to file this away as a moment to tell him how completely reckless this is later, how anyone could’ve been in here since this clearly isn’t a closet, when he realizes this is a bedroom. A bedroom that, from the dust build up, hasn’t been cleaned in a while. That has weapons and clothes in it, and where everything is pushed against the walls, leaving most of the space completely open, which would make it easy to navigate even blind.

When he looks down at Sasuke, his student looks right back, eyes wide and practically begging him not to say anything. With the lights off, the others can’t see anything, and like the barrier, this is going to have to be another thing just kept between the two of them. Kakashi nods, lets Sasuke know he’ll keep his mouth shut, and they wait out the sound of Kabuto’s footsteps before leaving.

Orochimaru’s room takes a single turn, and a short walk down a hallway. There’s no punch code on this door, similar to Sasuke’s, just as he said, and he pushes it open without preamble, Chidori shot out in a spear, somehow managing to get both Orochimaru’s wrists at once.

The real mission is on, and whatever happen from now, Kakashi knows, there’s coming back from this. 


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Orochimaru learns there's a disadvantage in turning into a giant snake against four highly skilled shinobi who all desperately want him dead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A number of things you should know going into this chapter:
> 
> 1) I wrote it in short bursts, so there were deaths that felt like they took a very long time to reach (to me) until I reread it and realized the pacing was weird, so Orochimaru gets killed off pretty quickly. 
> 
> 2) I've insinuated rape before, but this is the first time I actually come out and say it. It's just a sentence, but I figure it deserves a warning. 
> 
> 3) I've just had a really horrible week, and probably didn't proofread this as well I should have, so there's a chance the mistakes might be more obvious than usual. Sorry in advance.

Orochimaru’s sigh is more a hiss than a breath exhaled. “I thought it might come to this the moment I realized you were gone, Sasuke,” he says, voice much too calm, despite having his arms immobilized. “Is this the little girl who tricked -”

Considering how confused he is already, the last thing Sasuke needs is to hear conflicting information, so he decides it’s probably better not to let Orochimaru finish, releasing another wave of the Chidori in the form of senbon needles before the others have a chance to do anything. This wasn’t supposed to result in the body suddenly collapsing into heap of skin, and a snake erupting from under the bed.

“A body switching jutsu?” Kakashi says, and Sasuke nods, trying to figure out the best point of attack. “And here I thought you couldn’t get any worse.”

When Naruto and Sakura try for a combined strike, Orochimaru rushes past both, easily avoiding both hits, and heading straight door. “This is getting a little crowded,” he says, rearing up. “How about we move this to somewhere more open, Sasuke?”

It should have been a short fight. Instead, he flees, and Sasuke’s stuck leading Team Kakashi to the surface.

They don’t let him get outside, cornering him in one of the meeting rooms of the upper level. If he can change bodies, though, then this fight can go on forever, with Orochimaru just moving every time his current one starts getting close to death. Taking him out on his own wasn’t something Sasuke intended to do, but clearly if his body can’t die, then there’s only one other option: Seal him.

Before he can yell for the others to back up, Kakashi lands a hit, and poison gas explodes from under Orochimaru’s skin. Fuck it, Sasuke’s risking it, even if trying to protect multiple people at once isn’t something he’s ever done before. As Naruto runs to attack, Sasuke grabs the collar of his shirt, pulling him back, and unleashes his Susanoo.

The effect is instantaneous. Of course, Orochimaru knows exactly what this can do, and pulls back, trying to get away. “Did you forget me that easily?” he asks. “What lies did Tsunade tell you?”

Again, Naruto tries to lash out, threatening to rip Orochimaru’s mouth off if he doesn’t shut it, but Sakura gets a hold of him, apparently recognizing what they’re caught inside of. “Yeah, sorry,” Sasuke says, “but that won’t work on me anymore. I can see again.”

“Do you really think sight is the answer to your confusion?” Orochimaru says. “Take a good look around. What truth do those eyes see?”

The truth Sasuke sees is that he’s never actually sealed anything, just knows that he has the capability to from Itachi, which is a problem, and means the best he can do is concentrate and hope. He’s a chuunin of Konoha, a member of Team Kakashi, his mission is to assassinate Orochimaru, and he isn’t planning on beginning a new record of successes now. For back up, he releases Amaterasu, too, coating the blade, and directs Susanoo to strike.

In the end, any attempt at sealing doesn’t work, but there are only so many places in a room where even a giant snake can run, and the thrust of the blade mixed with the Amaterasu burning the body through is apparently enough to do away with Orochimaru before he had the chance to change into anything else.

He dies screaming, and the sound gets at Sasuke from somewhere he thought he’d buried too deeply to affect him.

As Susanoo fades, leaving the burning corpse of the snake, he extinguishes Amaterasu. The heat of it burned away any poison gas, too. Unfortunately, reality is also starting to set in, and what he just did really hits him. He killed Orochimaru. Alone. By burning him alive, in his home, that for a while was _Sasuke’s_ home, and if that isn’t the definition of -

There’s a suddenly clatter, breaking him out of his incredibly bad train of thought, and Kabuto’s standing at the entrance to the lower level, tray of medical supplies at his feet. “ _You_ ,” he says, but Sasuke doesn’t let him get any further, releasing Amaterasu again to burn a line down the center of the room.

“We’re about to take the front gate out,” he says, grabbing Sakura’s hand and Naruto’s sleeve, and if there’s one person that he holds zero allegiance to here, it’s Kabuto. That just cleared his mind more effectively than Kakashi’s Sharingan ever could on short notice.

By the time they make it outside, the alarm’s already been raised throughout the city, and the streets are in chaos. It’s not like everyone was loyal to Orochimaru in Otogakure, and there are forehead protectors dropping everywhere with fights beginning just as quickly. Sasuke’s not surprised at all half the people who try to engage them in combat get beaten back just as quickly by supposed allies. Getting experimented left mixed opinions. Hopefully anyone against it will burn the labs, because there are tests in there that should never see the light of day.

Those with a cursed mark are almost guaranteed to be loyal, though, and it isn’t long before they start breaking out Stage Two. They surround the four of them quick enough, and hopefully Gai and Yamato got Kakashi’s message to run for the trees. “Do you have the chakra left to summon Susanoo again?” he asks after they take out their second surge, and Sasuke’s chokuto is saturated in red already. Blood runs down the asphalt street and gutters in rivers and streams. “We need to get out of here before Naruto goes overboard.”

Sasuke releases it for probably his last time today, and tries for something else he’s never done before. “Make a break for the exit,” he tells his team. “Susanoo can fight independently. Or at least that’s what Itachi said.”

Unlike last time, he’s right, and Susanoo stays behind. The gates are closed, but one hit from Sakura, and an area large enough for them to get through crumbles. Just then comes a scream he recognizes, and he stupidly, stupidly looks - right in time to see Karin’s chakra signature die out. Karin, who ran the labs and definitely didn’t have the skill level to be involved in a battle like that. Karin, who he’d never seen without the aura of a Sharingan surrounding her body, and he hadn’t known her hair was red.

Freezing up on a mission isn’t good, especially when it results in your best defense disappearing, but the others must’ve been expecting this, because Naruto grabs him and pulls him along until Sasuke figures out how to work his own feet. Gai’s voice comes through the communicator, giving his location, and Otogakure’s fallen into too much disarray for anyone to follow. Even with his chakra depleted to close to nothing, Sasuke can still say that was too easy.

This should be the best day of his life. Instead, he feels like a traitor, and that isn’t how it was supposed to happen at all.

~~~~

 

Because he’s used to it, and therefore can go a while with blurred vision, Sakura saves healing Sasuke’s eyes for last, temporarily bandaging them instead. Outside of her and Naruto, everyone was injured, and dealing with the strain of a Mangekyo Sharingan takes even more chakra than healing Kakashi’s lungs, which are damaged from directly breathing in the poison gas. It took forever getting a safe enough distance from Otogakure to actually take a stop and rest, and even longer to all reconnect. Splitting up and getting back together repeatedly was the quickest way to throw off anyone trying to trail them.

Now it’s nearly night, and Yamato and Tenten are both completely crashed, exhausted from their wounds. Neji’s still holding his wrist gingerly, and Lee cracked four ribs. Sai managed to get a deep enough wound down his back that without her, he would’ve needed stitches, and running without taking care of it caused heavy blood loss. While Gai’s injuries were nothing as serious as the others, it’s still better to take care of a concussion than to ignore it. Being the only medic of the team means Sakura’s tired, too, because she used a lot of chakra. The situation isn’t good.

Because they’re the only two capable to do so, she and Naruto are stuck on first four hour watch until they can wake Kakashi and Gai, and rest themselves until morning. “Killing Orochimaru was faster than I thought,” she says, slumping against a tree and leaning against her friend’s shoulder. Sasuke, unsurprisingly, is dead asleep, head in her lap.

Nodding, exhausted, Naruto answers, “I think it took all of half an hour. Did you have any idea Sasuke could do that?”

“Nope. I was absolutely clueless.” She hadn’t expected his kenjutsu style, either. “Kakashi’s going to force him out of service for a while, isn’t he?”

“After that wonderful display of panic at the gate? Definitely.”

When rescuing Gaara, she’d seen the way Naruto fought, and again when they went against the Akatsuki members to help out Team Eight. Watching Sasuke just summon that thing with his Sharingan like that made her realize she hasn’t actually seen him fight yet, outside of that short one against each other before rescued him. That was, for lack of a better word, terrifying. A week ago he’d told her “I’ll kill anyone whoever I have to in order to keep it that” but this was a very real wake up call that he clearly _has_ killed people, and often, too.

Being a shinobi means killing is inevitable. She killed Sasori, technically. Naruto killed that Akatsuki guy. Their currency is blood, their trade is death. But for some reason, that didn’t make back there any less freaky.

Or maybe it was just his face after he literally burned Orochimaru alive. He looked horrified, not satisfied, and after what the bastard did to him, that isn’t okay.

Naruto’s hand finds hers, and gives it a comforting squeeze. Considering he’s a Jinchuriki, he’s pretty frightening, too, and as Tsunade’s apprentice, she guesses she probably isn’t so benign herself in the eyes of some people. “We lived,” she says. “All of us. That’s what matters. No broken hearts to return to.”

For a moment, she’d been afraid she couldn’t do anything for Tenten, who’d been stabbed in the stomach, but the blade miraculously didn’t hit any vitals. Running just hadn’t done her any favors. Naruto says, “Yeah, all thanks to you. Becoming a medical-nin was a genius idea. Did I ever tell you that?”

“Only like a billion times.”

“Well, it’s totally true,” he says, and she smiles, close-mouthed. “I can’t wait until we’re home. I want a real shower.”

He’s not the only one. Pretty much every shinobi ever shares the sentiment, and she’s noticed that Sasuke’s number a day seems to have increased since he returned. After the medical report she saw, she’s not surprised. “Kakashi said tomorrow night we should be far enough that we can take off our forehead protectors and take a bus to the nearest hostel. It’ll shorten our trip back to Konoha to two days.”

With a sigh of relief, Naruto says, “That’s the best news I’ve heard in like a week. Iruka’s going to kill me for taking this long.” He pauses before continuing, “Oh, uh, I’ve got a question.”

“What is it?”

Though it takes longer than is probably strictly necessary, he explains his dilemma with whether he should make an active effort to stick around more, or move out. “Iruka would be sad if I did and all, and I’d be too,” he says, “but I feel like more of a boarder by this point. It’s not really fair, you know? If I stay, I’d want to pay him rent, but he’d flat out refuse, even if he is buying groceries for me I only sometimes eat, and I almost never stop to talk to him. And I’m eighteen. Most people are out by now.”

She’s too tired for this in a way, but mulls it over. After being friends with him for so long, she’s pretty close to Iruka, and stopped by while Naruto was gone. Uncertainty turns him into a worrying mess, and you don’t technically need to tell your parents every little update once you’re gone. As since they still live together, Naruto probably should, so he has a good point.

The solution hits her as the most obvious thing in the world. “Just move in with us. You practically live there anyway,” she says. “I mean, I’d have to talk to Sasuke to double check, and you have to keep in mind that we’re together and all, but honestly, it’s going to take us a while to act like it.”

After another pause, he says, “You sure? I don’t want to get in the way of the two of you or anything.”

“Look, I know we’re avoiding the subject, but captive bonding included...you know. In this case.” She glances down at her boyfriend, who’s fast asleep, but she still can’t bring herself to actually say the word “rape” on the off chance he’s awake. The thought of it still makes her feel sick. “Honestly, you’ve seen how hard it is sometimes. I could use the help.”

In truth, she could easily deal with it alone, but this is more a guilt trip than anything else. From the sound of it, it probably is better that Naruto leaves, and it’ll just be cheaper for him to live with them. He practically does anyway. Itachi’s old room has become his, and Sasuke doesn’t remember anything clearly enough to be bothered by it.

After a moment, Naruto says, “I’ll talk to Iruka about it, but you’re right. And what’d Kakashi say about us? That we basically live in each other’s pockets? No point in stopping now. If you two ever want to kick me out, though -”

“We’re not going to, ever. Even when we do figure everything out.”

She refuses to think of it as an “if” rather than a “when.” No, Sasuke’s going to heal. It might take a while, but he remembered her. That means something.  Orochimaru might’ve tortured him with all he had, but Sasuke didn’t lose everything.

If he hadn’t looked like he genuinely thought he’d done something wrong while fleeing Otogakure, though, she might even believe that.

“You guys are awesome, you know that?” Naruto says. “Best friends anyone could ask for.”

“Perks of being the bottom of the social food chain. The losers and freaks join together to form a collective greatness,” she answers, and smiles. “Everything was so simple back then. When’d it all turn into this?”

Yawning, Naruto says, “Once I found out I had the Kyuubi inside of me, and we became genin. Pretty sure that’s it. Or maybe when Sasuke’s family got massacred. That could be.”

“I like the former. Itachi made a great parent.” It might be horrible to think, but considering his dad tried to kill them, Sakura’s always thought Sasuke and Itachi were better off without their real ones. They turned out all right just the two of them. “Chuunin exams? When we first became genin everything was still calm enough..”

Again, her friend nods. “That’s it. You’re absolutely right. Let’s wake up Kakashi and Gai and lie. I need sleep, like now.”

Even if lying about something like that is bad, she is too. “You do it, I’m too tired to risk getting punched.”

Naruto wanders over, and in their half-awake state, the other two buy the lie. Without further direction, Sakura curls up in front of her boyfriend, maneuvering his arm so it’s around her waist, and hopes that waking up by her side is enough to remind him of who he really is.

**~~~~ **

 

The long term, on-foot mission version of personal hygiene is brushing your teeth and scrubbing your face. When Neji suddenly says, “Five Akatsuki members a mile west, moving closer,” Sasuke still has a toothbrush in his mouth, waiting for Sakura to finish doing whatever she’s doing so she can heal her eyes.

Kakashi says, “Everyone, scatter,” and Naruto’s hand closes around Sasuke’s arm right as he activates his Sharingan, dragging him away.

There’s bad luck, and then there’s Uchiha luck. After killing Orochimaru, Sasuke was really hoping for that two day break it would take to get back to Konoha just so he had the chance to let everything in his head settle, and throwing himself into another fight isn’t going to help. “Follow me,” he tells his friend, pulling himself into the trees to use the branches as a quicker way to run across the forest. “I know a hideout that should be empty. We could lose them in there.”

All around this area, Orochimaru set up labs and hideouts, but most were never used. Even so, Sasuke knows all of them. He had to - they made good places to stay for the night if he couldn’t make it back before nightfall, and most are maze-like enough that leading an enemy in there gave him a home territory advantage. If he’s going to be stuck engaging in a fight against an Akatsuki member, he at least wants to make it as hard for the guy as he can.

Any thought of leading their potential opponent off, though, ends abruptly when two appear out of nowhere with the telltale sign of a dimensional shift. One’s Deidara, Sasuke knows, because he was in the list he memorized in Oto, but the masked one is new. “The Jinchuriki and Orochimaru’s lackie,” the guy says, and at least that’s better than Hidan and Kakuzu’s name for him. “This means we lucked out, right, Deidara?”

“Yeah, yeah. Deal with the other kid, Tobi,” Deidara answers. “I’ll handle the Jinchuriki.”

That’s all the warning Sasuke and Naruto get before they’re stuck throwing themselves in opposite directions to avoid a string of clay bombs, and they better end this fast, or Sasuke’s chakra is going to fail, and he’ll be stuck fighting with his vision screwed to hell. The masked one - Tobi - materializes in front of him right as he’s about to hit a tree, a simple punch at the ready, and Sasuke dodges, retaliating with the Raikiri. When his arm fazes through nothing, he stumbles, and it’s only chakra that keeps him on the branch.

All right, so Tobi can use a dimensional shift on separate parts of his body, which Sasuke didn’t even know was possible, but he knows definitely isn’t a possibility without a Mangekyo. Which means either he has a family member no one bothered to tell him about, or like Kakashi, someone stole a Sharingan. Judging by the inflection in his voice, Tobi has to be relatively young, and the only Uchiha who lost an eye before the massacre was -

“You’re the one who killed Shisui!”

Sasuke’s surprise and general exhaustion gives Tobi enough time to get a hand around his neck, slamming him back against a tree trunk. “Sorry, kid, that was a real suicide,” he says, voice suddenly sounding a lot more serious than it did minutes earlier. “The name’s Uchiha Madara, and I think it’s a time the two of us had a talk.”

As he was just so completely disinterested in his own family history, it takes a moment for Sasuke to place the name. He releases a Chidori through his body, and Tobi, Madara, whoever the fuck he is, is too close to even shift, getting pushed backwards as Sasuke drops, using a Shunshin to get out of the way. His next attack, a seven point strike with his chokuto from behind, falls through, and Tobi Madara continues, “See, that uprising didn’t just happen, but -”

“If this is the story about the Senju and Uchiha and Kyuubi,” Sasuke cuts in, backing up as Madara appears in front of him again, “I’ve already heard it, and really don’t care.”

In the distance, something explodes with a bang, and all Sasuke can see is a plume of smoke, which means they’re further away from Naruto and Deidara than he thought. Madara says, “Your brother had the same reaction when I tried to talk to him, but Kakuzu did everything all wrong and got to him because I could tell him the big secret: the uprising was instigated by a Konoha elder.”

Again, Sasuke’s attack falls through, but this time it’s his own fault; he lets it get to him, and stops midway through. “What are talking about?”

He ends up on his back quicker than he shoulder, Madara pinning him down. “Everyone hated our family before you were even aware of it, Sasuke,” he tells him, “blaming the clan for the Kyuubi attack all those years ago - which really was a freak accident. They all just wanted the Uchiha clan out of the way. A man named Shimura Danzo dealt with any talk between the them and the government - Hokage, other elders, Council, you name it - and saw all the discontent and anger as a way to get rid our family. He’s the one who stole your cousin’s eye, he put all these thoughts in your father’s head that he really could topple the Senju, and once the plans were set, betrayed them. You and Itachi were supposed to die, too, but whatever jonin found you was -”

“I’m not helping you kill Tsunade or destroy Konoha, if that’s what you’re getting at.” Sasuke’s never met Shimura Danzo in his life, though he’s heard of him, and he doesn’t have all that much trouble believing a third party helped aggravate the situation. But it’s just that. _Aggravated_ it. Knowing his family, it would’ve happened eventually anyway, and late enough that they would’ve tried to get Itachi involved. “How do you know this anyway?”

Another bang. He really has to get out of here and help Naruto, but his friend can take care of himself, and answers come first. “Oh, I found out, of course. I have my ways,” Madara says. “I was going to help. It was about time the Uchiha clan got the respect it deserves. But by the time I got there, the massacre was in full swing, and the Akatsuki wasn’t strong enough yet that I felt comfortable exposing myself to help. I knew they wouldn’t touch the children. You and Itachi, you were my hope for the clan. Your brother was never supposed to die; Kakuzu and Hidan went overboard, and injured Itachi too badly. Are you really going to abandon the last of your family for the ones who destroyed it, Sasuke?”

For the Council and Konoha elders, no. Sasuke doesn’t care about them one way or the other, they could all die and he wouldn’t spare a thought - but Tsunade’s good, and he has Team Kakashi, and and he’s had enough people fuck with his head and try to turn his loyalties to last him a lifetime.

Without answering, he releases Amaterasu, trying not to think about how bad this is for his eyes, and Madara is close enough again that the dimensional shift is just in time. Sasuke scrambles up, falling to the branch below, and decides that fuck it, he’s willing to abandon a fight for once, because that third explosion really didn’t sound good. Just as he starts a second Shunshin, Madara reappears, but before he has the chance to do anything, Sasuke’s already gone.

When he arrives, Naruto’s glowing red, there are clones everywhere, and apparently Deidara can fly on his exploding clay. Neither wind nor the Rasengan seem to be helping all that much, if the physical state between the two of them is anything to go by, but clay is technically an example of earth nature transformation, which means lightning will work against it. Madara might have been a pain in the ass, impossible to beat because of dimensional shifts, and apparently a long lost, should-be-dead-as-of-a-hundred-years-ago family member, but at least this is an opponent Sasuke can actually fight.

Despite the haze the Kyuubi’s probably causing, Naruto notices him quick, and says, “There are landmines everywhere. Careful where you step, ‘lot of my clones have lost legs that way.”

“Try to take out Deidara,” Sasuke tells him. “I’ll take care of the explosives.”

Naruto doesn’t question him, just takes to the trees to get higher altitude to his jumps while Sasuke channels electrified chakra into his feet, taking out the landmines the same way kids play hopscotch on the Academy playground at recess. The ones coming towards Naruto he takes out with a Chidori Senbon, and as he slices through three flying explosives with his charged blade, he catches sight of Madara standing on a distant branch, cheering Deidara on in the same childish tone as earlier, but not coming any closer.

Apparently Deidara has a limited amount of clay, because it starts breaking away from his bird. The communicators have been silent since they split, but someone better show up soon, because he won’t last much longer, and Sasuke doesn’t think he and Naruto can take out Madara like this. Not without the Kyuubi taking over, and Sasuke’s main priority is the shut down the chakra reserve before that can happen, because the last thing they need is for Naruto to lose control in the middle of a fight.

The scream is sudden, and loud, and he comes flying back towards the ground, a series of explosives inches away from his face. Sasuke runs, narrowly avoiding an active landmine in the process, and catches his friend around the torso, knocking them both backwards, as he holds out his arm with the Chidori at full force, sending it out in a straight, concentrated spear from his chokuto straight towards Deidara. It takes out the explosives coming their way, goes straight through the clay bird, and solidly connects.

Whatever happens next, Sasuke misses completely, because he and Naruto crash down together, and the last of his chakra finally fizzles out. There are shapes, and a lot of light and colors, and everything’s blurry, but the important thing is that Sasuke can’t see.

He doesn’t need perfect vision, though, to watch Deidara expand to the size of a building for his last line of defense. Self-destruction. “Naruto, get us out of here!”

But his friend doesn’t answer, because the next moment Deidara explodes, and Sasuke instinctively shuts his eyes. Even without his Sharingan activated, he can feel Naruto’s chakra grow exponentially at the same moment. Heat washes over him, hot enough to hurt without the flames touching him, but nothing hits. Madara shouts, “Deidara!” followed by a growl right next to Sasuke’s ear, and another bout adrenaline kicks in, giving him just the right amount energy to activate his normal Sharingan.

This isn’t his first time inside Naruto’s seal, but last time he wasn’t exactly Sasuke. His friend’s trying to get away from the Kyuubi, whose head is completely out of the bars, and they’re arguing back and forth for him to go lock himself up again. Right now Sasuke really doesn’t have the chakra to waste on waiting to see the outcome of a battle of willpower, so he steps forward, right in line with the fox’s mouth, and says, “Thank you,” before touching his nose and sending him back through the bars.

Sending the Kyuubi away is enough to throw Sasuke out, too, and he lands back in his own body to find Naruto covered in blood, unconscious right in front of him, and in the last second that he can keep up his Sharingan, he realizes he can’t see any other chakra signatures. Madara is gone.

Then the Sharingan fades, and Sasuke really hates going blind.

**~~~~ **

 

When they find the boys, both are bloody and unconscious, and Kakashi’s still relieved. Sasuke’s call for help cut out in the middle of saying, “ _Naruto’s out cold, and I can’t_ ,” and he’d been afraid there was another fight. Finding out they both just passed out isn’t the worst possible outcome.

The Akatsuki member Kakashi and Sakura were up against fled the moment he saw the explosion, and apparently it’s the same for Neji and Tenten, and Sai and Tenzo. For some reason, no one caught up to Gai and Lee, which must mean Sasuke and Naruto dealt with two opponents. One was probably the explosion, but Kakashi doesn’t see any bodies. The second must have fled, too.

Sakura manages to get Naruto up first, and gives him wipes to help with the blood before starting on Sasuke. “He completely used up chakra, I think,” Naruto says as Lee pulls him to his feet. “His eyesight got worse, too. The Sharingan went out right before bomb guy exploded. Deidara, or whatever his name is.”

“Who was the other one?” Sai asks. “Process of elimination means you had the extra.”

As Kakashi drops next to Sakura, helping a half-conscious Sasuke sit up, Naruto answers, “I think bomb guy called him Tobi or -”

“Madara,” Sasuke says, voice hoarse. “He said his name was Madara. We need to get back to Konoha as soon as possible.”

Naruto looks as confused as Kakashi feels, and he was right here for the fight. Sakura asks, “What happened? What do you mean?” and puts his hands over Sasuke’s eyes. “And sit still, I don’t want to mess up.”

After this, Sakura’s not going to have much chakra, either. This past couple of days drained all of them nearly dry. “I need to talk to Tsunade,” Sasuke answers. “I think I might’ve just met the leader of the Akatsuki, who I've never heard of before.”

There’s a moment of silence before Naruto says, “But the guy spoke like he twelve.”

“Yeah, to you. He tried to convince me to join,” Sasuke says. He sounds more clear headed than he did yesterday, which is a good thing, but if the Akatsuki is really trying to get him to join, then getting him a temporary discharge of service is no longer an option. Keeping him prepared is more important than locking him away in his apartment with once a week visits to a psychologist. “There’s a train station not far away from here,” he adds. “We’re close to the Valley of the End, and the train for the town near there cuts straight through to Kimachi.”

Trains are more expensive than buses, and Kakashi doesn’t know if they brought the money along for one, but they’re also faster. If they take a train at Takamura, then they’d be back in Konoha in fourteen hours, and as with everything, fare for shinobi are free. “How many tickets can we afford?” he says, turning to Tenzo, who’s been in charge of money for the trip.

“I think enough,” Tenzo answers. “We won’t have to factor in the cost of a hostel. Sakura, how close to finishing with him are you?”

“Nearly there, I think,” she says, forehead scrunched in concentration. “Give me ten minutes.”

From what Kakashi’s managed to gather, Sasuke’s vision deterioration doesn’t physically hurt him, and if he were injured anywhere else, Sakura would’ve known, so there’s no reason he should be this tense. Yesterday, he was more uncomfortably dejected than anything else, stuck in one of his silences. This is something else. There’s more to the fight than he’s saying.

After ten minutes, his vision’s back to normal, as Sakura said, and he stands on his own. For the first time, Kakashi gets a look at his neck, and sees faint bruising in the shape of a hand. Gai says, “Is everyone ready to go? We’ve been in one place too long already.”

Since they were closest to the original campsite, he and Lee picked up their gear, so at least they don’t need to backtrack. “Let’s go,” Kakashi says as Sakura wilts against Sasuke, who’s still looking pretty shaken himself. Tenzo and Tenten aren’t much better.

This is going to be a very long walk. Kakashi just hopes they can all make it to the train in one piece.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know Obito's explanation is different, but it's a different situation, and Sasuke's goals are much less predictable since he doesn't have the preoccupation with revenge, which makes him harder to appeal to.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pein attacks, and Sasuke plays politics.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm probably not going to get a chance to update until Wednesday. I have like three essays and a presentation to do. 
> 
>  
> 
> Also, random, unimportant OC alert.

Though Sasuke doesn’t understand why, he keeps the part about the uprising to himself. Maybe it’s too personal. Maybe he doesn’t want to open an investigation into anyone important at a time where Madara basically straight up said he planned on invading Konoha. Most likely it’s just that enough people here distrust him already, and he doesn’t want to give anyone reason to confine him to the village.

Even with his memory as patchy as it is, he has enough there to know he and his parents didn’t get along. Hell, more like his family in general. It was always him and Itachi, even before everyone died, though Shisui was nice. He and Itachi were close, a memory Sakura backs up, even if she wasn’t around at the time, though Sasuke can’t remember why his cousin committed suicide. Something about losing his Sharingan, he thinks. There’s something particularly sickening about finding out Shimura Danzo has that eye instead.

Whatever, Sasuke tells himself. If Shimura ever tries anything, the Mangekyo will inevitably be stronger than a Sharingan controlled by a non-Uchiha with nowhere near the skill level Kakashi has. When things settle down, he’ll tell Tsunade. For now, he’ll just look into himself. There’s always the possibility Madara was lying, after all. Itachi obviously didn’t raise to the bait either, which means he probably didn’t believe it, so why should Sasuke? Right now nothing makes as much sense as it should, and killing Orochimaru made it worse.

No, he doesn’t want to think about Orochimaru. Ever. There’s a certain amount of closure that he’s  never going to lay his hands on him ever again, but going back into Oto was enough to screw Sasuke over. A part of him still associates that place with “home,” even though he knows he shouldn’t. Maybe he should ask Kakashi to get inside his head again. As fucked up as that was, it helped, and he wants this _gone_. If Itachi were here, he could block Sasuke’s memories of Otogakure and Orochimaru so completely there’d never be a chance of them coming back.

Then again, if Itachi were here, Sasuke wouldn’t have been there long enough for Orochimaru to stick him inside a pitch dark room with chakra dampers on his wrists, the walls too thick to hear anything, and zero interaction with anyone to the point he actually bought the lie he was getting saved for the half hour it took to get the experiments started. Yeah, that’s the sort of thing that stays in your memory. He didn’t start really blocking out Konoha and everything involved until the -

Orochimaru is dead. Sasuke’s no longer under any risk of getting dragged back there ever again.

Suddenly there’s a sound at the door, and he’s sitting up in a second, hand blue and singing with the Chidori, Sharingan activated. “Whoa, calm down, it’s just me,” says Naruto, but Sasuke’s already relaxing, letting both disappear once he recognizes his friend. He moved in three days ago. “I just stopped by for a minute to tell you something.”

It takes Sasuke a moment to understand the implication. “Wait, you’re leaving?” he says. “Does Team Kakashi have a mission?”

Naruto shakes his head, and slowly comes over, like he’s afraid Sasuke’s about to startle and run away. “I just found out Jiraiya died,” Naruto tells him. “It’ll be all over the news by morning. Akatsuki. He was looking into activity in Amegakure. Uh, Tsunade thought it was probably a good idea if I went and got additional training with those frogs I summoned, but it’s solo.”

“How long?”

“Like a week, maybe two,” he says with a shrug. “I’ve got an idea, and I need to be back before the Akatsuki attacks. Probably won’t be long now since, you know, the leader pretty much revealed his plan to you.”

He learned how to incorporate wind chakra into his Rasengan in a week, so Sasuke won’t be surprised if his friend pulls it off. “Sorry about Jiraiya,” he says, because that’s what’s appropriate and he understand what family dying feels like. Then he pauses before adding, “Did you hear yet that I’m not allowed out for a month ‘unless something the Sharingan is needed for comes up.’”

Eyes widening, Naruto says, “You’re kidding. Someone actually fucking said that?” Sasuke nods. “What’re you going to do?”

With a shrug of his own, he answers, “Train, I guess, with Kakashi or Sakura,” and doesn’t mention that he’s absolutely going to ask about taking the jonin exam. That’s a week long test, and doesn’t require leaving Konoha. “You should probably leave if you want to make it back soon.”

“Yeah,” Naruto says, and stands again. “Hey, no bullshit from either of us, I need you to be honest. You get that all this is real, right? That we aren’t just tricking you or something like that?”

Again, Sasuke nods. “I’m pretty sure I remember close to everything. Am I really _that_ different?”

It’s a necessary question. Naruto wouldn’t be asking otherwise. “Not really,” he says. “It’s kind of like you’re stuck in one of your bad periods, but that always goes away, right? Just that you talk more than you would in one of those, so it’s weird.”

Well, that’s more straight forward than anything Sakura would say. Though Sasuke doesn’t have the clearest memories of his “bad periods,” he gets that they weren’t fun for anyone involved. “I know a lot,” he says. “No point in hiding it. I’m tired.”

In truth, it’s less that he’s tired, and more that he’s not fine, but this is the closest to a confession Naruto’s getting. Sasuke thinks his friend understands, because he just nods, says, “See you in a week,” and shuts the door behind him when he leaves.

The room is silent again without him, and Sasuke wants Sakura here to keep the nightmares away.

 

 

He should probably talk to Kakashi or Sakura first, but he bypasses both, and makes an appointment with Tsunade. It’s actually surprising, how quickly she makes room with him. “What is it?” she asks immediately after telling him to sit. “More information on Uchiha Madara?”

Though she probably suspects the truth, he just shakes his head. “I want to take the jonin exam,” he says, because he’s starting to understand the politics surrounding his clan more. “I fit the credentials. I want to continue going out with Team Seven, and if the wrong people find out the Akatsuki tried to recruit me, I won’t be allowed if I’m not a high enough rank.”

Whether or not the Council and elders helped orchestrate the uprising and resulting massacre, this is still true. Unlike Naruto, Sasuke hasn’t “proven himself.” Instead, he disappeared for two years to work for the enemy, and there’s enough bad blood surrounding the Uchiha name already. He can’t let himself stay behind, and Tsunade isn’t technically the strongest voice in the village. Everyone with anyone political awareness knows this.

Apparently she knows he understands this too, because there’s a long pause before she says, “Give me your credentials.”

As Hokage, she should be able to just see them, but he humors her anyway. “An S-ranking mission, two A-ranking mission, three B-ranking, and normal amount of genin C-and-D-rank missions. I assassinated Orochimaru, killed two Akatsuki members alone - one at the age of fifteen - and assisted in the kill of a third. At fifteen, I also assisted in containing Gaara from causing further destruction to Konoha in his Jinchuriki form. I control three nature transformation chakra,and have full control of my kekkei genkai, created a number of my own jutsu as well well as copied others, and adapted my own form of kenjutsu.”

For a chuunin, it’s a good resume. The only two with equal ones are Naruto and Sakura, but neither of them fill the nature transformation requirement. What he doesn’t mention, but she should be perfectly aware of, is that she’s the one who pulled him back into this way earlier than anyone was comfortable with, including his own team.

Unfortunately, there’s a second pause. Then, “You fit the requirements easily. Assassinating Orochimaru is arguably Unranked, to be honest. But the likelihood that you’ll pass is still slim.”

He blinks. “Why?”

“If you thought the psychological evaluation to become a genin was bad, it’s nothing in comparison to the one received at the end of jonin testing,” she answers, crossing her arms. “Having Team Kakashi out in the field at full power, which includes you, is something I consider a necessity, and I’ll argue for you. I’ll organize an exam this week if you’d really like, but you spent a week in a psych ward for reversing captive-bonding, Sasuke. You’re going to need a minimum of three people to vouch for your mental state if you want to pass.” There’s a third pause before she adds, “I can guarantee your psychologist won’t give you one. Do you still want to try?”

Naruto probably would, after their discussion, but he’s not here. If Sasuke’s lucky, Kakashi too, and he’s pretty sure Sakura will. Yamato? Anyone else on the assassination mission? To the rest of them, he appeared to sane enough. There’s got to be at least three shinobi in Konoha who realize he hasn’t cracked yet.

“Yes,” he says. “I want to try.”

All Tsunade does is raise an eyebrow. “You’re dismissed. Your examiner will collect you by nightfall, so you better find your three people fast. Pick up the paperwork from Shizune on your way out.”

On that very pessimistic note, Sasuke leaves, ready to head to the hospital first. Even if they don’t actually believe he’s stable, Sakura and Kakashi are going to want him to stay on his team, and that counts for something. It has to, or he’s about to be stuck in Konoha for a lot longer than a month.

 

 

Having Sasuke show up at his doorstep is random, and disconcerting, considering Kakashi hadn’t even known his student knew his address. “Sakura told me,” Sasuke answers to his unasked question. “Can I come in? The rain’s annoying.”

The downpour started ten minutes ago, which means this isn’t just Sasuke showing up randomly, but a sopping wet Sasuke. Somehow, that just makes him only seem smaller, and thinner, and younger than seventeen. “And to what pleasure do I owe this visit?” Kakashi says, and leads him deeper into the house so he can find the kid a towel.

“I need paperwork saying I’m mentally stable enough to stand active duty,” he says bluntly. “I already talked to Yamato and Sakura. Both have already given their letters of recommendation.”

If Sasuke’s looking for letters of recommendation, it can only mean one of two things, and Kakashi was already thinking of requesting off time for him before it happened anyway. “What for?” he asks anyway, figuring he should at least hear Sasuke out to find the best way to let him down. Sakura’s a little blinded by romantic entanglement, and Yamato doesn’t know him enough to understand Sasuke won’t be able to handling anything harder than chuunin duty.

But then he says, “For the jonin exam, because there’s a possibility I’ll kicked off Team Seven without a higher rank to back me up,” and Kakashi knows this just got too complicated.

Though they haven’t told Tsunade, or anyone else in the group of ten, the boys did tell him and Sakura about Naruto losing control and Sasuke bringing him back. That basically means Sasuke is the best defense against the Kyuubi, and Sakura’s the best way to make sure he doesn’t accidentally kill himself trying to contain it. Team Kakashi’s grown too dependent on each other. Chuunin, under normal situations, should be high enough, but Sasuke’s already transcended “normal situations.”

Just, great. Kakashi might have to lie for the sake of _politics_ because there are still important people with a grudge against the Uchiha clan.

They’ll just have to make sure no one tries to sneak him into the list of jonin instructors, or squad leaders. There’s no way he’ll ever be able to handle a team of genin, and though the second was already a possibility when he was a chuunin, his status as a member of Team Kakashi kept that from ever happening. His knowledge of Otogakure was the only thing that got him on the mission to assassinate Orochimaru in the first place, or at least so he assumes. Either that, or Tsunade didn’t even mention it to anyone else, but there’s only so long she can do that. And the difference between a chuunin and jonin is that jonin report directly to the Hokage, while genin and chuunin still receive orders from a collective group of the Hokage and select higher officials. Before the uprising, the Uchiha clan had a say, too. That’s part of a problem.

At least Sasuke must be desperate enough to actually listen to what Kakashi’s going to tell him. “I’ll do it,” he says, “but only under one condition.”

Sasuke’s mouth tightens around the edges. “What is it?”

“If you pass,” Kakashi answers, “then unless I give you explicit orders, you follow what I say the same way you do now. Understand?”

When Sasuke nods, Kakashi gets it; Sasuke knows, at least on a subconscious level, that he can’t do this, not really. It doesn’t matter how smart or skilled he is, because he didn’t naturally get himself out of the state he was in when they rescued him. That took genjutsu, which isn’t a good sign. But the team needs him, and considering the Akatsuki is actively pursuing them, Konoha needs Team Seven.

This is one of the most ridiculous situations Kakashi’s ever found himself in.

Even with his face close to expressionless, Sasuke’s still clearly relieved. “Understood,” he says, and Kakashi really hopes he means it. If he doesn’t then this can backfire, and backfire quickly.

The best Kakashi can do now is trust him, and that’s easier than he thought it would be.

 

 

Everyone in Konoha knows who Uchiha Sasuke is, and Daisuke is no exception. Years earlier, he worked with Itachi, and the kid brother is so similar it’s eerie.

Contrary to popular belief, the jonin exam isn’t nearly as hard as the chuunin one. It’s a lot of skill review, a single spar, not to the death but until the examiner (Daisuke, in this case) calls a stop, a look over of mission reports, and finally a psychological evaluation. Uchiha is...unique, to say the least, and just a kid. Though the minimum age of joining Anbu is eighteen, it’s rare someone progresses to jonin until at least nineteen since the War. Itachi was one of the few who passed through within six months of filling the age requirement. Sai, a new member of Team Kakashi, is twenty-one, Anbu for a year, jonin for two, and even that’s young.

So what the fuck’s Daisuke supposed to do with a damaged seventeen-year-old?

Skill testing comes first, and the kid flat out refuses to show the final form of his kekkei genkai, since he doesn’t have a medic on standby, but according to secondhand info, his Mangekyo just as impressive as his brother’s. Besides, the rest carries him. Sparring is an extension, and Daisuke is actually insulted when his jutsu is blatantly stolen, without shame, and thrown right back in his face. He continues for a half hour until he starts overwhelming the kid, whose answer is to slice him with a chokuto made unblockable because it’s _charged with electricity_ , forcing him to acknowledge that yeah, Uchiha’s better than just what the Sharingan can do.

Mission report review is where it gets interesting, though. “You took your first B-ranking mission the day you turned fifteen?”

“It was an accident,” Uchiha answers. “We were lied to, told it C-ranking.”

Daisuke nods. “How did you take out the Akatsuki member?” It isn’t a mission, but was an important enough event to end up on file anyway.

“Dimensional shift. I took out my second the same way.”

“Third?”

“Teamwork, and the Chidori,” Uchiha says. “Clay explosives were weak against it.”

There are more than a few impressive missions on here, but Daisuke hits up the important one last. “The mission report says you killed Orochimaru alone, despite having a team of ten. How?”

With his face blank, Uchiha answers, “I combined Susanoo and Amaterasu to burn him alive. The Mangekyo Sharingan is convenient.”

Supposedly, this kid’s dating the Godaime’s apprentice, some pretty little thing with pink hair, and how the hell do they ever manage a conversation? It’s like he says the minimum number of words he can. “We can move on to the psychiatric evaluation now,” Daisuke says, and is almost disappointed in knowledge that Uchiha’s going to fail here. Everyone knows about Orochimaru. It was the talk of Konoha for a long time, and if he didn’t end up screwed up beyond repair, Daisuke’s going to be surprised.

Then he is surprised. Very surprised. Because he doesn’t get the chance to even ask a question before Uchiha’s handing over three neatly folded, thin stacks of paper. “I’ve already done it,” he says. “Here’s proof.”

Two teammates, and his instructor. Basically, solid evidence, though if Daisuke wouldn’t be shocked if none of them fully believed it. “Do you really think you have the capability to serve as a jonin?” he asks. “To take on solo missions if necessary, lead squads numbering more than four, and handle missions mainly exceeding A and above?”

“Yes,” Uchiha answers, face still completely blank, and Daisuke pulls up the registration file on his computer.

As he fills it out, he says, “Congrats, kid. You’ve passed,” and this is the fastest exam he’s seen in years.

 

 

Though Sakura’s still a little pissed that Sasuke hadn’t given her the head’s up that he decided to advance in ranks, she’s ridiculously proud that he managed to, too, and intended on spending the twenty-four hours it takes for the forms to process in their apartment together with takeout and a movie. They’re on the couch waiting for their food, her tucked against his side with his arm around her like they’ve gone back in time three years, talking over the exam, when the sirens sound. She’s never heard the sirens outside of drills before, but she knows instantly this is serious, because it means that Akatsuki are here.

To make it worse, Naruto isn’t.

Like any logical shinobi, the three of them keep all their weapons at the door next to their shoes, so she and Sasuke are out of their apartment building in less than two minutes. Civilians are running out of the main town towards the hills, the family residential areas with the public schools and university, to find shelter, and shinobi have already gathered outside. It’s early in the day, and more than one off-duty man or woman is caught with weapons and no forehead protector, wearing nothing but pajamas. If Sakura hadn’t been paranoid about this for the past week and a half, she’d be just like them.

Kakashi finds them before they can find him. “They’re coming in fast,” he says. “Three of them, likely more. All of them have the Rinnegan.”

This is all the warning they get before two round the corner, and though Sasuke seems to know what the Rinnegan is, she doesn’t. Having Naruto here to fight with them would be better, but they’ve got three of the four members of Team Seven, and that’s good enough. Along with Sasuke and Kakashi, she readies herself to attack.

She doesn’t care how good the Akatsuki are. No one’s going to take away her home.

 

 

Once Naruto shows up with his frogs, everyone’s saying to let him handle it alone, but then he’s on the ground, and they’ve already lost Kakashi, and taken two out themselves, and all it takes is one look at Sasuke before they take off together to save their friend.

It’s insane, and just about the worst idea ever, because both of them are injured with their chakra severely depleted, but Sakura refuses to lose anyone else. She lets Sasuke take the fight, dropping on her knees next to Naruto, and begins working on healing him, because he has black rods stuck in his body and more wounds than she can count. They’re on top of what used to be the Academy, she thinks, but she isn’t sure, and tries not to get distracted when her boyfriend creates a ring of black flames around them. There’s no way he has the chakra to put up with this, but hey, at this rate they’re all die together, and that might not be such a bad thing. Shinobi die for their home, it’s what they do, and if they manage to take out the enemy at the same time, then good for them.

As she rips out the third rod, and starts on healing the hole it caused, the metallic smell of a thunderstorm cuts sharp through the smoke. Her sighting’s fading, chakra depletion catching up to her, but there’s a crack lightning bright enough to piercing through her dimming vision. Right as she falls, Naruto wakes with a yelp of pain, and the last thing she sees is the Amaterasu die out as Sasuke collapses, too.

 

 

Konoha’s destroyed, but the dead revived, and Tsunade won’t wake up. As much as he tries, Naruto still doesn’t really get what happened. How does destroying things equal world peace? Even with Pein’s explanation, it doesn’t make all that much sense.

As it was located in the hills, like all clan compounds, Sasuke’s childhood home was untouched. Finding answers here of all places seems weird, but his friend insists that they might be able to figure out something, so the three of them are in the Uchiha archives searching through books and scrolls. It’s kind of weird that Sasuke’s completely unaffected by this place, but according to him, he barely remembers anything about the night, or even really his childhood, at all, so there isn’t much of a connection.

Well, that’s just about the only thing ever to come out of forced amnesia.

Three hours in, Sakura says, “I found something on Rinnegan,” and Naruto nearly trips over a scroll trying to get over fast enough. “It’s the myth about that sage who introduced ninjutsu into the world. Apparently the Sharingan can evolve into the Rinnegan with the help of something called ‘the Six Paths Chakra.’ No explanation on that.”

“Wait, so does that mean you were related to that Pein guy?” Naruto asks as Sasuke takes the book away.

Shaking his head, he says, “I checked the family tree after you gave me the real name. The Rinnegan felt too similar to the Sharingan, so I thought it might be something like this. There’s nothing. My guess is either people other than Uchiha can get this, too, or someone implanted them, like Kakashi’s Sharingan. When I got the rundown of the Akatsuki in Oto, I never heard anything about the Rinnegan coming from the Sharingan, so if it was implanted, Pein didn’t talk about it.”

The Uchiha get all the cool eye techniques. The Hugya’s always freaked Naruto out because of the vein thing, but the Rinnegan can revive the dead, which is both weird, and great. “Does that mean _you_ can get this?”

Sasuke’s scowl says everything. “I think the Mangekyo Sharingan scares enough of Konoha as it is.”

“You’d have to figure out what the Six Paths Chakra is, too,” Sakura says. “You know what the Akatsuki losing Pein means, right?”

“Yeah. Madara’s going to try a lot harder to get me.”

That Eye of the Moon Plan thing Pein was talking about made it sound like Madara needed a second Mangekyo Sharingan anyway, and that’s why they originally went after Itachi. Ever since the fight with Madara and Deidara, Naruto’s thought something else went on with Sasuke, he just wasn’t sure what. Now he’s pretty much positive whatever “join me!” talk that went down involved some family bullshit. There’s no other reason that Sasuke’s first thought would be to come here of all places when he couldn’t even remember his mom’s name until Kakashi said it.

Still, Naruto doesn’t know how to say he figured it out. His friend would’ve said something if he wanted to. “At least you’re not going to get stuck in Konoha,” Naruto points out. “We’ll just have to go after them before they come after us.”

Before either of his teammates can say anything, Sakura’s phone goes off. “It’s Ino,” she says, confused, before hitting connect and putting it on speak. “Hey, what’s up?”

“ _Can you make it to Ha no Ren?_ ” Ino asks. “ _There’s this guy named Tazuna and his grandson Inari looking for you - or, well, by given names, but how many Naruto, Sakura, Kakashi, and Sasuke’s come in combination?_ ”

It’s been a while since Naruto thought about their mission to the Land of Waves, and that bratty kid with his drunk grandfather, but he grins as widely as Sakura does. Though Sasuke’s obvious confusion is a complete disappointment, they can just remind him later, since he remembers the mission. Sometimes names just trip him up.

“Tell them we’ll be there in a minute,” Sakura says. “We not that far away.”

Ino’s voice goes as muffled for a moment before she says, “ _Tazuna said he’ll be waiting. I’ve got to go find Chouji, though, so I won’t be here. See you guys later_.”

After exchanging goodbyes, Sakura hangs up, and Sasuke puts his book back. “So, uh,” he says. “Who?”

With a sigh, she takes his hand and leads him along, Naruto falling into step beside them, and together, they explain. Sasuke remembers basically everything already, and it doesn’t take all that long, but considering that was only, like, less than three years, the fact that they even need to explain anything at all is still depressing.

The bastard’s dead, and Naruto doesn’t hate Orochimaru any less than he did three weeks ago.

 

 

Because of the confusion and the day-long battle, Sasuke’s forms never processed, but now that the systems are back up, they should go through. Suddenly getting barred wasn’t supposed to happen. “I don’t know what’s the cause, Uchiha,” Daisuke says when he finds him. “Nothing should’ve gone through until the Godaime woke.”

After spending a day dodging Kumo-nin, who probably recognize him in a bad way because he’s killed a ridiculous number of them, Sasuke’s really not up to dealing with this. “Was there a glitch?”

“No, I checked myself, and asked the Godaime’s assistant,” Daisuke says, frowning. “Look, I don’t get it, either. I’ll get it straightened out, though. Right now we need all the jonin we have.”

Sasuke feels Kakashi before he hears or sees him, which is rare, because usually his chakra’s in a perpetual state of repression outside of battle. “You can’t do anything until Tsunade is awake,” he says, coming up to Sasuke’s said. “Kurenai just came to find me. They elected a new Hokage.”

“What? Why?”

“Apparently there’s some uncertainty about whether or not she’ll wake up,” Kakashi answers. “Shizune and Sakura are arguing against it. Saito, I’ll take it from here.”

 _Take it from here_? What is Sasuke, five? This isn’t his fault. Even so, Daisuke says, “I’ll still see what I can do.”

After Sasuke thanks him, he leaves, and Kakashi waits until the other man is long gone before saying, “You weren’t just barred from advancing, Sasuke. You were put on probation.”

“Probation?” Sasuke repeats. “Was killing myself to help out Konoha suddenly a criminal act? Who’s the new Hokage?”

Dying had been a traumatic enough experience, which really didn’t help how confused he’s felt since killing Orochimaru, and meeting Madara. Finding out that the Rinnegan comes from the Sharingan was worse, and he’s suddenly very, very afraid that someone else knows, too, and they think he’s going to end up like Pein, and try to re-destroy Konoha. Or, at the very least, run away for real. The fact that he keeps dodging foreign shinobi probably wouldn’t help his case.

Sasuke’s killed a lot of people. He doesn’t think his team’s realized that yet.

But then Kakashi says, “His name is Shimura Danzo,” and like that, Sasuke knows Madara was telling the truth, because why _else_ would he be put on probation? “He - what’s wrong? Do you know him?”

His hands are shaking, he sees when he looks down. Typical sign of an oncoming panic attack. “He can’t be Hokage,” he says. “Kakashi, I might not have been completely honest about my fight with Madara.”

Kakashi looks around, and then goes to put a hand on Sasuke’s shoulder before hesitating. “Come on,” he says, dropping his arm. “We’re going to find Sakura and Naruto, then go somewhere with some privacy.”

The whole point of becoming a jonin was to find answers. Of all the ways to get them, Sasuke has to say getting barred is definitely one less expected.

 

 

“So he used your family to try to overthrow the Hokage before? Didn’t he also send Sai to kill you?” Naruto says, and Sasuke nods. “We have to tell someone.”

“What part of ‘he just left’ did you miss?” Sakura says, and frowns. Right before her boyfriend caught up with them, she’d gotten the news herself, and this isn’t something she ever  wanted to hear. “And who _would_ we tell?”

Though she won’t say it out loud, all four of them are thinking it: people are more likely to believe the current Hokage than a Uchiha on probation. “The Akatsuki attacked Kumo’s Jinchuriki, right?” Sasuke says. “Well, they don’t like me any better than the Council here, but if I offer to trade information about the Akatsuki in exchange for getting the four of us to the Summit, maybe they’ll do it?”

It comes out as more of a question than an actual suggestion. Something went down between him and Kumogakure, that much is clear, because every time one of them catches sight of him, they glare with more hostility than she thought possible. But it’s not like they can just interrupt the meeting of the Five Kage with a conference call, or anything.

“With the leaders of the five most powerful Hidden Villages all in one place,” Kakashi says, “I wouldn’t be surprised if the Akatsuki shows up, too. If Tsunade isn’t awake by the time we get back, though, you’re going to forced out of service for ignoring probation.”

“He tried to instigate an uprising after stealing my cousin’s eye to overthrow the Sandaime,” Sasuke says bluntly. “Imagine what he’s going do actually in power.”

A couple of weeks ago, Naruto first suggested that life got confusing at the time of the uprising. Apparently he wasn’t wrong. “You’re right,” she says. “I know there are a lot of people who don’t like how ‘kindly’ Tsunade is governing, but right now the last thing we need is some sort of extremist as Hokage.”

Again, Sasuke nods. “Yeah. Who’s going to talk to the Kumo-nin?”

Shimura Danzo will have taken a plane to the Summit, something they won’t have the chance to do, but she doesn’t like the idea of asking for help with transportation. She goes to say she will, since she’s the closest to Tsunade, but Naruto cuts in, “I probably should. You know, there’s that whole Jinchuriki thing going on. There’s a couple here who had Eight Tales as their mentor. I heard them talking about it.”

Sighing, Kakashi says, “I’ll go find Yamato and tell him to cover for us. Naruto, don’t do anything stupid.”

“Be careful what you say about me,” Sasuke adds, not looking at them. “They don’t like me for a reason.”

“Uh, should I know why in advance?”

“Sometimes Orochimaru liked me to leave someone alive so they could deliver a message,” he answers. “Oto and Kumo weren’t on good terms.”

There’s an awkward moment where clearly Sakura isn’t the only one who can’t think of what to do before Naruto says, “Well, I’ll just have to make sure they know that wasn’t, you know, you. And I’ll try to convince ‘em fast.”

When they all split, Sakura stays by her boyfriend’s side, slipping her hand into his. Konoha isn’t so innocent of actions like that itself, of course, but she gets it; Kumogakure is their ally. Technically, Sasuke killed his allies. And no one there knows him, so it’s not like any Kumo-nin’s going to get he isn’t some traitor. Moments like this are when Sakura wishes shinobi names weren’t kept out of the papers.

“I’m sorry,” she says. “About your family. This turned personal, didn’t it?”

Sasuke jerks his shoulder in an awkward shrug. “It still doesn’t give them an excuse for listening,” he says, “but yeah, I guess it’s personal. Kakashi was given his Sharingan, it doesn’t count, but stealing one? That’s just insulting.”

Though she still doesn’t understand the whole transplant thing, she can understand that much. More than anything involving the Sharingan, though, Tsunade is the Hokage, and it’s low that someone tried to use the destruction of the village and her sacrifice as an opportunity to snatch the position out from under her. She better wake soon, Sakura thinks, because Konoha can’t last long without her. 


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Even dead, Orochimaru still manages to be a problem.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finished my first semester of this year!!!!!!! Okay, sorry, needed to get that out. The last couple of weeks were just awful. 
> 
> Anyway, this is where the story is going to get tricky, because Sasuke's a pretty important antagonist, and now I have to integrate him into the protagonists' story line. I promise to do my best. 
> 
> The beginning was inspired by that scene where he just kills like fifty samurai and walks away completely unharmed. 
> 
> Warning for talk of child abuse and suicide.

The thing these Konoha-nin never seem to get is that just because Orochimaru was from here doesn’t meant he was only their nightmare. Around the time other villages began gaining awareness of the existence of Oto, kids started going missing. Not just normal kids, either, but shinobi kids - mostly orphans, but not always. After awhile, it was enough to catch real attention. That’s when Otogakure burst into the scene, and everything went wrong.

Really, the main problem was that there wasn’t any real evidence that Orochimaru or Otogakure was involved, and there was never a struggle. Anyone that went, they went willingly. But just because they went willingly didn’t make it right. You don’t trespass onto another shinobi’s soil and not expect some sort of consequence. The Konoha chuunin exams, the one that resulted in the death of the Sandaime Hokage, finally got people to move into action, but for Kumo in recent years, there’s got to be proof before the Raikage can call for an attack on another village.

One way or another, that last bit of evidence just kept getting away, so activists started cropping up everywhere. The loudest was a diplomat named Fujioka Akira, who was well known for pissing off the Raikage and smoothing over the Hyuga-Kumo Incident years back. First came the anonymous threats, but all Fujioka did was pay for a larger shinobi guard. Ten A-to-S-class jonin, not the biggest number in the world, but that’s ten of the best in Kumo, and should’ve been enough to protect him when he took his wife to some beach resort for her birthday.

They were found in the morning, burned and stabbed and, worst of all for a Kumo-nin, electrocuted, so the first thing people thought was a traitor. But the Raikage’s smart, there were already whispers of a lightning user in Oto, and this had to be the result of all those threats. It was enough proof to push over the decision to form an offensive force, and go in for the invasion. So about a year ago, some of the most skilled shinobi Kumogakure had to offer were compiled into a squad of twenty-two and sent off to infiltrate the Land of the Sound, and attack Otogakure directly.

Except that they were all specially selected for their ability to fight as team against multiple opponents at once.

Of all twenty-two to leave, only one came back. After her nearly month long stay in intensive hospital care for mental trauma, Heiwa described the incident like this:

“Pale skin, dark hair, red eyes - came out of shadows, we didn’t notice him until we were too late. There were these flames, black, in a circle, burned half of us alive, created so much smoke the rest us could barely see. That’s when the lightning came. Not even a cloud, and it struck from the sky.

“There’s a message. ‘Don’t come back.’ I tried to pursue, but he looked at me with these weird eyes, like a drawing of an atom, didn’t even do hand seals. I apologize for my failure, but you didn’t see it. I’ve heard of powerful genjutsu, but this was something new.

“He came out of the shadows. _We didn’t see him until it was too late_.”

If she ever rambled about what the genjutsu showed her during her hospitalization, then her psychiatrist did a good job of keeping it confidential. After a while, she was able to give a clearer description, but not clear enough for anyone to recognize him from the chuunin exams. Without knowing the assailant’s name, Kumo came up with their own: Orochimaru’s Shadow. It took all of two weeks for Orochimaru’s Shadow to get a very, very sparse section written on him in the bingo books. Other villages added info of their own. Descriptions differed, but the basics were the same: on the shorter end, lean, black hair, pale skin, and red eyes. The price on his head isn’t high, but it’s enough that half of Kumo swore revenge.

Of all the goddamn places in the world Omoi expected to find Orochimaru’s Shadow, Konohagakure was the absolute last after Kumo. And every time one of them tries to talk to a Konoha-nin about it, the only answer they get is “Sasuke’s complicated.” Just a given name, too, like they’re too afraid to say his clan’s or something.

But now there’s this blonde kid claiming to be a Jinchuriki like Bee, (and is supposedly the person who killed Pein) asking them to smuggle Orochimaru’s Shadow into the Summit under the grounds of “it’s necessary.” Even the promise of information on the Akatsuki isn’t enough for this. The only thing keeping the Kumo-nin here from killing him is that they don’t want to spark a war, and he’s protected, but if the Raikage lays eyes on him, Orochimaru’s Shadow is a dead man.

When they explain this to Uzumaki Naruto, the kid’s face pales. Way beyond his shoulder, Orochimaru’s Shadow is actually visible, talking to the famous Hatake Kakashi and some pink haired girl he’s looking at like she’s some sort of absolution for his crimes. His eyes are blacker than the night sky. He can’t be any older than sixteen.

After they finish, Uzumaki says, “I know it looks bad. Was bad. Really, though, it wasn’t his fault. It’s just -”

Kurai, always more hotheaded than Omoi, exploded. “Not his _fault_?” she says, hands on her hips. “Kid, we’re shinobi, killing’s what we do, but there’s a difference between killing and slaughtering. You don’t just slaughter people and get away blameless, you got that?”

Uzumaki frowns, and Omoi’s more confused than he has been about anything in a while. Considering they were just invaded, he wouldn’t have imagined any Konoha-nin would be comfortable cozying up to someone like _that_.

“Look, Sasuke’s really not important right now,” Uzumaki says. “Or, well, he is, because we _need_ him if we’re going to stop Shimura Danzo from doing anything to make the situation worse. What that kunoichi saw was the Sharingan. Sasuke’s Uchiha Itachi’s little brother, and come on. You have to at least know the name Uchiha.”

The obviousness of what the red eyes could mean is a slap in the face. After all, the Single Night Rebellion made international news - Uchiha Itachi ended up famous as a result. The _Sharingan_ was famous enough already. But last Omoi checked, it’s a tomoe, not an atom shape.

Is there more than one form?

With a sigh, Naruto says,“I grew up with him, he’s my teammate. He couldn’t stand the sight of blood until he was twelve, okay? When I said it wasn’t his fault, I mean it. He was kidnapped from his apartment injured, and next time we saw him, it a rescue mission two years later and he didn’t even recognize anything. Orochimaru literally _tortured_ him into doing shit like that. I get that this probably doesn’t help, but we need him for this. If we go down against another Akatsuki guy who won’t die ‘cause they might attack, he’s the only one who can take care of it. He's already killed, like, three.”

Even if Omoi doesn’t doubt Orochimaru would do something like torture a perfectly innocent kid, he’s still skeptical. How do these Konoha-nin know he isn’t tricking them? Uchiha, or Orochimaru’s Shadow, or whoever he is, is clever, and genjutsu is sort of thing, apparently.

“You really trust him?” Kurai says. “Like, we really, really need him?”

Nodding, Naruto answers, “Yeah, believe me, we do. And I’d trust him with my life. If you think that’s just because we were friends, walk up to any Konoha-nin and ask them who killed Orochimaru. It was Sasuke.”

“For real? How’d you get him out of the state you found him in?”

“Uh, more genjutsu.”

Omoi wonders if this kid’s realized yet that using genjutsu is technically torture, no matter what the application. What he’s describing is captive bonding, which means instead of reversing it, Konoha actually just changed the focus. Uchiha’s probably half a second away from snapping. Bringing him along is as a bad idea.

Before he can say this, Kurai groans, melodramatic as usual. “Fine,” she says, taking him Omoi by surprise. That easy? Seriously? Taking a potential nutcase from the bingo books to a Summit of the Five Kages isn’t really going to go down so well. “But only if he’s never alone, ever. And if we see one thing that’s fishy, he’s heading right back here, got it?”

Again, Naruto nods. “Yeah, got it, perfect, Sasuke’ll be fine, seriously. He sucks at talking, but he’s really great, I swear.”

Yeah, Omoi will believe it when he sees it. This is a horrible plan. “Go get your team,” he says. “We better hurry if we want to make it time.”

Naruto smiles, too bright and happy for something this fucked up, and runs off to the others. The pink haired girl is laughing, unheard from all the way over here but obvious, and Uchiha has his arm around her. If Omoi didn’t know any better, he’d say they were just a couple of normal young shinobi in love.

The fact that Orochimaru’s Shadow, who’s a goddamn _teenager_ , gets happiness like that while Bee’s out there somewhere dead or worse is so unjust it’s astounding.

 

 

Usually, when Sasuke gets anxious or nervous about some something, he stays by Sakura or Naruto. This time, he sticks by Kakashi, which is so childlike it’s unnerving.

Even so, he understands why - or at least thinks he does. He’s the only one who gets Sasuke isn’t as okay as he’s pretending, something the other two, as a best friend and a girlfriend, are missing, whether they realize it or not. It probably helps that Kakashi has access to the bingo book records, and he’s known about them since Tsunade figured out looking for any signs of Sasuke wouldn’t involve an internet search for his name. Kakashi can understand why the Kumo-nin are apprehensive. Even so, he can’t figure out a way to convince them that Sasuke’s only a threat to enemies of Konoha.

Every time Omoi or Kurai look their way, he just shrinks deeper into his seat. Since organizing a plane was impossible, their last option was a series of trains, and it’s uncomfortably restrictive for all of them. “Stop doing that,” Kakashi says quietly when Sasuke does it again. “You’re making it worse.”

Sasuke’s answer is just to fidget, pulling the sleeves of his windbreaker over his hands. Great. Silence. With an expectation of the night he killed Orochimaru, he’s been doing a job at actually communicating people.

Kakashi holds back a sigh and tries again. “Sasuke, you’re not the first person this has happen to, and you’re not going to be the last. They’ll get over it.”

For the first time since they left, Sasuke looks up. “I thought I was done with him.”

There’s no real way to tell him he’s never getting away from his time in Oto, not when he’s made this much of a name for himself. With his new connection to the Akatsuki, too, it’s only going to be harder to shift his reputation, but that doesn’t mean Kakashi’s going to let anything happen to him. The same is true for Naruto. At least with Naruto, though, his reputation’s already changing from just “Konoha’s Jinchuriki” to “village hero.” He has more people than just Team Kakashi looking out for him now, and most of Konoha will be calling for blood if the Akatsuki ever does end up getting his hands on him.

“We’ll give the Raikage a warning before he sees you,” Kakashi says, knowing that’s the best he can offer. He’ll explain what he can while keeping Konoha’s secrets, and Sasuke’s privacy, intact, too. After a moment, he adds, “Anyone else who needs one?”

Unlike every other shinobi village out there, Oto had no allies. Sasuke’s quiet for a long time before saying, “I wasn’t allowed near Konoha or Suna. That’s it.”

The Kumo-nin glance their way again, and Sasuke looks away. Across the aisle, Naruto’s asleep with his head on Sakura’s shoulder. It’s a testament to how weird their friendship is that the boyfriend doesn’t even look twice. “Okay,” Kakashi says. “We’ll make sure they know.”

Sasuke doesn’t answer, but Kakashi hadn’t expected him to. Even if he doesn’t have many people, Sasuke has them, and Kakashi’s going to make sure that’s enough.

 

 

He hadn’t thought this through. Sasuke first realized that on the train, but he’s especially realizing that now as he sits with Sakura, watching the two Kumo-nin, Kakashi, and Naruto trying to explain the situation to the Raikage and Mizukage, the only two around. Needless to say, neither of them seem pleased.

At least Shimura Danzo isn’t anywhere around, but unfortunately, neither are the Suna siblings, and they’d probably provide some sort of backup. “We’re really going to do this, aren’t we?” Sakura says after nearly an hour of just sitting in silence, because the two Kages at least appear to be calming down, though it’s hard to tell with the Raikage. “Interrupt the second day of the Summit to expose the Hokage?”

Right now it’s something of a lunch break, and they’re pressing it close for time. Shimura is going to be the worst to get around, considering he’s the one they’re after, but from the looks of it, they aren’t going to be able to get a head’s up to the Tsuchikage. Then again, Konoha’s on shaky grounds with them, so he probably won’t be happy with Sasuke no matter what loyalties he’s tied too. More than once Suna-nin attacked Otogakure, but he was never allowed to get involved, something he didn’t understand at the time, but now he realizes is because they’d recognize him almost as surely as someone from his own village. But that means Suna still sees him as plain Uchiha Sasuke, where the worst crime he committed was stopping a manipulated attack on Konoha, and as long as Naruto and Sakura say they trust him, Gaara and his siblings probably will, too.

Or more like hopefully.

“Yeah, seems like it,” he answers, keeping his eyes on the scene unfolding in front of him. Whatever Kakashi and Naruto are saying must be graphic to win over those two in an hour. “I might be off the team after this.”

“Tsunade won’t remove you from service for something like this.”

“Violating probation is a serious enough offense to warrant jail time.”

Sakura’s eyebrows draw close. “But you shouldn’t be on probation in the first place.”

Sasuke goes to answer, but then Kakashi turns around and motions for them to come over. Both the Mizukage and the Raikage continue to look at him like they’re trying to figure out the most effective way to kill him, but it’s not as if they don’t have a good reason. What he did under Orochimaru was borderline criminal behavior.

Despite himself, Sasuke can’t help but wonder what they would all do if they found out he wasn’t actually supposed to leave that Kumo-nin alive. He still has the scars to prove how unhappy Orochimaru was to find out he hadn’t done his job correctly.

“Yesterday the Five Kages agreed on total alliance against the Akatsuki,” Kakashi tells them, “so if an incident like the invasion of Konoha happens again, the rest are all obligated to help in the retaliation. Shimura Danzo proclaimed himself leader.”

After years of growing up with his clan’s bullshit, Sasuke gets politics. This doesn’t make sense. Konoha just lost its place as the strongest shinobi village, and there’s no way someone like the Raikage would agree to work under the temporary Hokage, who’s been in power for less than a week, after Konoha’s status just plummeted. It takes more than charisma to convince a group of people more powerful than you to elect you leader.

A Sharingan could certainly pull it off, though.

As terribly executed as this plan is, at least this acts as proof that coming here was necessary. “I’m guessing you remember what I said about my cousin,” he says, and Kakashi nods. “Two eyes are stronger than one.”

Kakashi nods, and says, “Shimura Danzo needs to return to Konoha immediately, under two counts of treason and intent of conspiracy. It’s better if he isn’t allowed to continue with the Summit until the end of the day.”

“Does that really require bringing everyone?” the Mizukage says, lips pressed thin. “It doesn’t seem like the right task for a bunch of chuunin.”

“Sasuke’s a jonin,” Kakashi says, and it might be a lie, but the sharp intake of breathe is still satisfying, “and the one with the information.”

There’s a calculated pause before the Raikage says, “And afterwards you’ll keep your word to give us information on the Akatsuki?”

With a glance to Kakashi, Sasuke answers, “I’ll tell the Summit everything I know.”

That’s enough for the Mizukage and Raikage to lead the way, and before they do anything else, Sasuke has to expose a genjutsu. Oh, wonderful. Attacking his Hokage is going to over so well.

As they head off, Naruto knocks their shoulders, sending him a smile, and this better not end in handcuffs and another visit to I&T.

 

 

Entering the meeting room, where the others were waiting for the late arrivals, leads to mixed results. Gaara and his siblings have a reaction somewhere between shocked and pleased; the Tsuchikage is just confused, and with Sasuke’s eyes normal, doesn’t recognize him at sight; the leader of the Land of Iron cries out in outrage at the interruption; and Shimura must’ve been expecting something like this, because the guard with him instantly attacks, calling them traitors.

As the man comes closer, Sasuke just moves out the way, heading straight for Shimura, and activates his Sharingan as he does. That’s enough for the Tsuchikage to figure out who he is, but the Raikage restrains him before he can do anything about it. Shimura tries to stand, but Sasuke’s faster, and gets a hand to his face, tearing off the bandages. The sudden surge of anger at seeing Shisui’s eye is strong enough to take him by surprise.

Everyone’s attention quickly changes focus.

“Release the genjutsu, Shimura,” he says, refusing to give this man of the satisfaction of calling him by his technical title, “or I’ll do for you.”

It’s a weak one compared to what Shisui could really do, but it’s enough to add a whisper in the back of a person’s mind. He can see everyone’s chakra moving as proof. Temari reacts first, asking, “ _What_ genjutsu?”

“The one he’s had you under for the past day,” Kakashi answers, his forehead protector pushed up. “So, what’ll it be, Rokudaime?”

Before Shimura can do anything, the floor at the center of the room bursts, and out of it comes a twisted white body of white spikes and convoluted features that Sasuke recognizes from Orochimaru’s breakdown of the Akatsuki.

He doesn’t give Zetsu the opportunity to talk, throwing a kunai in his direction. “First piece of information on the Akatsuki,” Sasuke says. “That’s White Zetsu, and he acts like a spy.”

“Very good, Sasuke,” Zetsu says, twisting and bending his body to look at him. “But selling our secrets already? I guess I _won’t_ tell you where my men are in this village -”

This is very obviously just an attempt to rile them up, but the Raikage still falls for it, and he’s over the table with his hands around Zetsu’s neck in a second. “Where are they?” he says. “Answer me!”

“Well, I guess I could give you a hint -”

“Raikage, don’t kill -”

Susanoo appears right as the neck snaps, and wow, what a waste of perfectly good chakra. Unfortunately, his size is limited, too, and the only people Sasuke gets inside beside himself are his team, and the Mizukage.

Right as Susanoo fades, the Mizukage says, “What the hell was that?”

“Protection,” Sasuke answers, and he’s not even sure if it works. “Zetsu isn’t actually dead, he probably used it to release Hoshi no Jutsu without any of you noticing - it creates spores to stick to a person’s body and restricts and absorbs chakra with a time delay. Now there are only five people in this room unaffected.”

As much as he hates it, he can’t say with absolute certainty if that’s true. Exactly how deep Susanoo’s protection goes is still a mystery, but it was better than risking that. “How long is the time delay?” the Tsuchikage asks.

With a shrug, Sasuke says, “I don’t know, however long Zetsu wants it to be?”

That should be reason enough for them to sit down and think of a plan for even five minutes, but then the Raikage is gone, bursting through the wall, and all the Kumo-nin immediately launch into apologies. “As the ones without the spores, we should help,” the Mizukage says. “Some of them are from my village, after all. Uchiha, you’re coming, since you seem to have all the information. Ao, keep your eye on Danzo.”

While Sasuke was hoping this would work out, he hadn’t meant with the help of an Akatsuki attack. But it’s better than being told to stay here, so when the others leave, he follows close behind.

 

 

There are some things in life even Sasuke doesn’t expect. Getting dragged into Kamui before he can help with the fight is one of them. “I see you listened to me, Sasuke,” Madara says, standing in front of him on one of the blocks. So this is what it looks like. “Shame you didn’t try to kill him, but bygones be bygones. Are you ready for your history lesson yet?”

Last he checked, there’s no way out of here without the original jutsu user removing you, which means there’s no much he can do. “If I say yes, will you let me go when you’re done?”

“Of course,” Madara answers, and sounds way more cheerful than necessary. “Why would I ever lock the last of my family in this old place?”

“Fine, just, talk.”

When Sasuke was ten, he got the talk about the Senju, and the Uchiha, and the Kyuubi from Itachi as a way to explain the failed uprising. Explain it, not excuse it. Madara’s version is pretty much the same, but with additions, and comes across like a bad propaganda speech. After living with Orochimaru for so long, Sasuke’s gotten good at recognizing manipulation. Unfortunately for Madara, the Uchiha family just fucked him over too much for Sasuke really care.

Then Madara says, “Which brings us to your brother’s Mangekyo,” and he finally has Sasuke’s full attention. “What? You think he got that by killing your _father_?”

Though he’d always thought it was weird, he just accepted accepted it, because Itachi would never lie to him. “Our father liked him, they were close enough,” he says, though he can’t figure out why he suddenly feels so defensive. “So he killed him. That’s all it takes.”

“Fugaku refused to let me talk to Itachi at the same, said he was too young, the family would handle winning him over,” Madara says, “but I talked to your cousin Shisui at length before his suicide. He hated the idea of it, refused to participate, too, even wanted to betray the family and inform - changed his mind, of course, once he thought you and your brother would be killed too, despite your age.

“He told me a lot of interesting things about the latest generation, your cousin. You’re having difficulties remembering your childhood, from what I hear, but let me refresh your memory. Fugaku used to rough you up whenever you didn’t get something at the same speed as your brother. Shisui wasn’t clear on the details, but when you were seven and didn’t get your Kanton on the first try, it resulted in a broken wrist. That’s when Itachi threatened to report him to Child Services on the grounds of child abuse if he didn’t stop, even if it meant disgrace to the clan. So, no, the Mangekyo definitely didn’t form because Itachi stabbed your father.”

Sasuke remembers more about his childhood than he talks about, because there’s no point, and he might not’ve known about Itachi’s threat, but he definitely remembers that broken wrist. “Can you just get to the point?” he says, not appreciating this particular brand of memory land. “What does my brother’s Mangekyo have to do with anything?”

Because of that stupid mask, it’s hard to tell if Sasuke’s attitude is annoying Madara or not, but he hopes so. “Shisui must’ve gotten wind that the clan was getting set up,” Madara answers, “because I doubt he would’ve put your brother through it otherwise. If the uprising was interrupted, Itachi would inevitably help just so he wouldn’t risk you dying. But he was just a kid, skilled, sure, but not skilled enough to go against the horde of jonin Konoha would send in. He’d need something stronger than his normal Sharingan. Shisui planned out the suicide carefully for when Itachi was off-duty, and called him over. And you, Sasuke, know from experience that you don’t need to _kill_ the person you’re close to. Sometimes all it takes is witnessing it, and your brother had no idea what was coming.”

“Shisui wouldn’t -”

“Wouldn’t do that to Itachi?” Sasuke falls silent. “Keep in mind, your cousin already had his eye stolen by a Konoha elder. His original reason for not wanting to participate was the same reason he changed his mind: he didn’t want to put Itachi at risk. It never had to with any loyalty to the village. The Uchiha never owed them any, after what the Senju did to us. But then you and your brother grew up without the truth, and here we are years later, because you need to learn it somehow. The Uchiha, the Senju, we have a history. A pattern. Sasuke, you could be the first person to break it, come out on top.”

Shaking his head, he says, “I told you, I’m not killing Tsunade. If you -”

Before he can point out that he’s already died once for Konoha, which should be a pretty big indication he’s not up for betrayed it, Madara cuts in, “But I’m not talking about Tsunade.”

That actually gets a pause, because last Sasuke checked, she’s the only one in the village with a Senju bloodline. “Then who?”

“Uzumaki Naruto,” Madara answers, “son of Yamazaki Minato, Yondaime Hokage.”

 

 

Controlling a panicking Sasuke really isn’t an easy thing too, but still something Naruto’s usually pretty good at. So getting a bundle of Chidori senbon needles thrown in his face the moment his friend comes out of wherever Madara took him catches him off guard.

For some reason, the Akatsuki members just went away the moment Madara did, leaving all the Kages standing around in confusion. “What happened to him?” Gaara asks as Kakashi tries to calm Sasuke down. “Where’s Madara?”

“He’s going to try to kill Danzo,” Kakashi answers, and Sasuke’s entire body is shaking. Now that Naruto thinks about it, he doesn’t think he’s ever actually seen Sasuke panic in front of strangers like this before. “We’ll head him off. These three will catch up with us.”

Though Gaara and his siblings still seem concerned, the others run off without further direction. Five minutes later, and Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke are alone. If Kakashi’s going up, that must mean he’s going to take a stand-in for any decisions Tsunade would be making, but knowing Konoha’s in good hands at least doesn’t make Naruto feel any better about being down here.

Still, it looks like Sasuke isn’t going anywhere any time soon.

Naruto waits until Sakura gets their friend to sit down under the promise to heal his eyes before walking over himself. “Sasuke,” he says, taking a seat in front of him, “what happened?”

When Sasuke doesn’t answer right away, Sakura turns to Naruto and says, “How about we save the conversation ‘til I’m done, okay? This takes a lot of concentration.”

Translation: _Give him a moment to put together what’s going on._

It’s a long, silent wait, and Naruto can’t hear what’s going on upstairs. What’s been getting to him since the moment Sasuke disappeared, along with an entire column of Amaterasu, is that Madara went after his great-whatever grandson, not the Jinchuriki the Akatsuki’s been trying for pretty much for the past three years. As relieved as Naruto is that he isn’t one that got sucked into Madara’s alternate dimensional thing, it’s still weird. And definitely weird enough to worry about.

What could he possibly have done to get Sasuke to attack one of his friends?

Eventually, the shaking does calm down, and Sakura lowers her hand. “Sasuke, are you feeling -” she starts, but cuts herself off when he looks up, straight at Naruto. “Hey!”

“You’re Yamazaki Minato’s son.”

Though the way he says it isn’t a question, Naruto realizes that in the chaos of the aftermath of Pein’s invasion, and the fact that his whole team, well, _died_ , he kind of forgot to share this important bit of information. “How do you know?” he asks, and Sakura turns to stare at him. “What? I found out like a week ago, I didn’t have a chance to tell you guys.”

“Your _dad_ did this to you?” Sakura says, and oh, this is going to take a lot of explaining.

Now’s not the time, though. “We’ll talk about it later. It’s not as bad as it sounds,” Naruto says. “So, what’s going on?”

“Madara, he - he -”

The explanation comes out in bits and pieces and probably not in order at all, but Naruto gets the gist. Finding all that out sounds like a one hundred percent, perfectly justifiable reason to panic. “I didn’t mean to attack you,” Sasuke says with a edge of panic. “I just reacted to whoever was in front of me, I wouldn’t have - I won’t -”

“Hey, Sasuke, I know,” Naruto says. “We know. Who the hell cares what Madara has to say, right? Fuck that stupid prophecy, me and you aren’t hurting each other.”

Sasuke nods, but it’s more of a twitch than anything else. “We need to leave,” he says, looking past Sakura and down the hall towards the stairs. “I don’t care if Danzo dies, to be honest, but if Madara starts a fight with them, they’re going to need all the help they can get.”

Even though Naruto thinks his friend probably shouldn’t be fighting at the moment, he has a point. Right as he goes to stand, though, the doors at the end of the hall open, and the entire group of Kages and escorts enter. Danzo isn’t with them.

If this leads to a fight, then they’re probably going to need Sasuke. This is exactly what Naruto was hoping to avoid.

 

 

In the end, Shimura Danzo fights. In the end, he also doesn’t die.

But he does lose an arm.

When they’re done, Sakura’s hurt the worst, as most of her attacks are close range, and despite his slightly blurred vision, Sasuke insists she focuses on herself after she handles Danzo’s new dismemberment. “Aren’t we going to have to bring the arm back as proof?” she says as Kakashi binds Danzo in chakra dampening ropes lent to them by someone at the Summit. “I mean, this is technically treason until Tsunade wakes up.”

Though they all took a lot of hits, nothing is serious. Sasuke tricked Danzo with a genjutsu, giving Naruto enough time to grab a hold of him while Kakashi got off his arm, and Sakura knocked him out with a rarely used syringe of sleeping solution. It was about as perfect teamwork as anyone could want, and meant the actual battle didn’t take as long as it probably should’ve considering Danzo’s freaky jutsu. But really. An arm filled with stolen eyes. Could it get any creepier?

“You’re right,” Kakashi says, giving the ropes one last tug. “Naruto, get the arm and bag it. Gaara said he’d take a layover in Konoha to fly us back, so we need to hurry to the airstrip. Sasuke, activate your Sharingan so you can see where we’re going without - Sasuke?”

Even since they left Konoha, Sasuke’s been mess, gradually declining, with the exception of the two battles they were stuck in, and Sakura doesn’t notice until Kakashi points it out that her boyfriend’s gone so pale even his lips are colorless. “That was one of Orochimaru’s experiments,” he says, eyes focused on Danzo’s unconscious body. “There’s no other he could’ve pulled that off.”

Oh, god. As if this couldn’t get any worse. “How much do you know?” Kakashi asks. “Or, can figure out?”

Sasuke shakes his head. “I’d have to see the clan’s archives,” he answers. “That was Uchiha specific. Most of Orochimaru’s experiments never survived. Trial and error always took more than one person.”

The look Naruto gives the bagged arm is exactly how Sakura feels about this. How many Uchiha family members had to die for Danzo to get this arm?

“Isn’t losing a Sharingan a disgrace for a Uchiha?” Kakashi says, and Sasuke nods. “Well, this explains the high rate of suicide your family had. And you’re positive this is Orochimaru’s work?”

“This isn’t like transplanting an eye, it would take a DNA splice,” Sasuke says. “It’s a springboard for a body transfer, and the cursed seal. Chakra flow changes, because you adapt the other person’s. Orochimaru was never really shy when it came to giving me details on what he planned on doing to me. Trust me, I know.”

That apparently settles it, which is good, because Sasuke looks half a second away from breaking down, and Sakura doesn’t know if after how stressful today was, she can handle hearing anything else. Later, she’ll try talking to her boyfriend, after the Danzo situation is dealt with, but what they all need is to just return to Konoha. For Tsunade to wake up and make everything right again.

As Kakashi throws Danzo over his shoulder, he says, “I’ll handle the situation when we get back, and relay the information Sasuke’s given. The three of you should go to your apartment, or out to eat, or do anything that doesn’t involve this.”

“What if Tsunade’s awake?” Naruto asks. “Shouldn’t we at least help explain what happened to her?”

“We’ll see what happens.”

Though that doesn’t sound like the most encouraging answer in the world, it’s enough to get them moving. Sasuke activates his Sharingan, keeping his eyes on the ground instead of looking at Kakashi, and when Sakura takes his hand, he doesn’t try to pull away.

So the world’s falling to pieces, but Team Seven’s still here, alive, and that has to mean something good.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I get that not everything matches up point of view to point of view, and that Obito's story is just a mess, but probably the closest person in this to a reliable narrator is Kakashi.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> War is on the horizon, and Sasuke gets orders. At least Sakura gets a new dress out of it.

Sasuke doesn’t know what Kakashi tells everyone, and he doesn’t want to. All he knows is that it results in Danzo’s execution, and no one important says a thing against it.

Ties to Orochimaru aren’t looked upon kindly in Konoha, after all.

Apparently Kakashi never mentioned the three day long panic attack Sasuke faced, because when he’s summoned to the Hokage’s office, he’s not told he’s getting discharged. “I fixed the paperwork,” Tsunade says instead. “You’ve been raised officially to the rank of Konoha jonin. In light of the situation, the violation of your probation is being overlooked.”

Well, that’s better than anything he expected. Actually, that’s probably the best news he’s heard in a while. “Thank you,” he says, deciding not to push his luck by asking why.

“You’ll still be serving under Kakashi, when the military divisions are finally made,” Tsunade continues, “but if you encounter Uchiha Madara, engage directly, even if it defies a planned attack formation.”

“What?”

Considering Madara has directly stated he wants to recruit him, Sasuke half expected himself to get carted away with Naruto, or at the very least told to make himself scarce if they came across each other. Last time resulted in him getting sucked into Kamui; he’s not the most useful person in the world.

There’s not a hint of amusement on Tsunade’s face, though. “You said you’ve hit him before, didn’t you? With your Chidori?” she says, and he nods. “Sasuke, we’ve been picking up strange images from aerial scouting cameras. It seems as though Kabuto’s joined forces with the Akatsuki, and he’s taken Orochimaru’s mantle. He’s using a jutsu to revive the dead - some of the greatest shinobi the world has ever seen are walking again, under Madara’s command. There are two people with the Sharingan left on our side, and Kakashi’s going to be occupied leading an assault against an undead army. Your Mangekyo might be the only real hope to at least discovering a way to kill him.”

When he originally asked to become a jonin, Tsunade had been resistant, so the sudden individual orders are a little unsettling. “And if he doesn’t show himself?”

“Then we’ll figure it out when the time comes,” she says. “Outside of the Kazekage, the rest of the Kages aren’t too thrilled with the idea of you taking the initiative, but there’s no denying you’re our best chance.”

Sasuke’s quiet for a moment, thinking it over, before coming to the only logical decision, no matter how much he hates the idea of it. “If I’m really going to do this,” he says, “then there’s a handicap I need to get rid of. How long are we going to have before we’ve fully mobilized?”

Raising an eyebrow, Tsunade says, “Ten to fourteen days, minimum. It’s not too easy to organize the world. What do you need?”

“Full access to Sakura’s healing abilities,” he answers, “and Itachi’s eyes.”

Her pencil hits the desk with a clatter.

 

 

The Sharingan doesn’t decay, even when the rest of the body does. Like all clans, the Uchiha took precautions to make sure the secrets to their kekkei genkai were never stolen in death. If an eye is transplanted into someone outside the family, then it’s naturally destroyed at the time of the person’s death. If not, the clan vaults can only be opened with a genjutsu cast by a Sharingan used by a blood Uchiha. Sasuke didn’t enter, not willing to see his brother’s body and entrusting Tsunade to do it, but he did take care of opening them, and really hopes he never has to do that again.

Even though she should be meeting with the rest of the Kages, Tsunade does the operation herself, informing the other four she was handling one of their best assets. “You’re sure this will get rid of the blindness?” she says with the scalpel already in hand.

“Yes. The Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan doesn’t have the same side effects.”

“Proceeding now. Try not to scream.”

In order to keep his eyes open, they can’t knock him out, or drug him. He’s going to have to struggle not to faint, and feel the entire operation.

When it starts, it’s the worst pain he’s ever felt, and he never makes a sound.

 

 

Getting stuck on some stupid island “for his protection” while everyone has the chance to fight isn’t what Naruto considers fair. Learning how to control the Kyuubi without Sasuke’s help is the least he can do, since he’ll hopefully be allowed out in the field eventually, but he can’t do it without Bee’s help.

Though Bee’s reluctant, at least Naruto succeeds in getting his attention. He’d disconnected enough TV systems in the Academy to prevent a day of having to watch embarrassingly old documentaries on the joys of shinobi living that he can undo his fellow Jinchuriki’s video game console easy enough. “Look, I’ve got this friend,” he says once he gets the older guy to stop freaking out on him for breaking his game, and this feels like explaining everything to Gaara all over again, “who’s got the power to control the chakra flow of people like us. If I go out on the field and lose control, he’s going to have to cut me off to avoid friendly fire since I can’t control it, and that leaves everyone else at risk, and my friend vulnerable.”

Bee narrows his eyes. “How can someone control our chakra flow?” he asks. “You can’t even suck us dry, and people’ve tried, boy.”

Considering that he’s eighteen, Naruto doesn’t really count as a “boy” anymore, but he’s already stolen this guy’s one entertainment in this boring place, so he probably shouldn’t push his luck by correcting him. “Uh,” he says, “it’s a long story. But anyway, I don’t want to risk hurting people, and there’s someone on the other side who I’m pretty sure can do the same thing, so you probably shouldn’t be the only Jinchuriki with control, you know?”

“Ask someone else.”

“I won’t reconnect the console.”

They stare each other down. Finally, Bee says, “Only if you lose that jacket. The orange is a giving off bad vibes.”

As offended as Naruto is because, excuse him but this was a birthday present from Jiraiya for off-duty days, it’s better than getting told no. “Awesome,” he says, standing and going back to the TV. “Give me five minutes, I’ll have this back up, and then you can show me how it’s done.”

Bee stands there, arms folded and glowering, while Naruto hooks everything back up. This is going to be the last time he ever underestimates the power of video games, he thinks, because that was way too easy.

 

 

Even with war coming to the whole world, and having to deal with healing Sasuke every six hours so the delicate optical nerves of his new eyes don’t disconnect, Sakura and her boyfriend take a day to themselves to celebrate her eighteenth birthday.

“Oh my god, I _love_ it!”

She spins around in front of the mirror, watching the hem of the dress she’s not going to be able to wear for a long time sway around her thighs. It’s red, hemmed white, with her family’s circle on the back. “Your mom helped us,” Sasuke tells her. “She said we weren’t allowed to buy you anything practical, since eighteen’s important.”

Sometimes she actually appreciates how oblivious Sasuke is to normal relationships, because typically, when a guy buys his girlfriend a present for her birthday, he doesn’t pool together money with their best friend. But it works, because she’s like ninety percent sure none of them could afford something like this on their own. Regardless of how many times Tsunade says money is one of the deadly vices of any kunoichi, that hypocrite, Sakura’s not going to stop appreciating well made clothing.

Now if only Sasuke could see her, even just a little, because she looks pretty great. Unfortunately, unlike the last few times when his eyes were going and his vision was just a little blurry, they’ve had to completely block him off by wrapping a bandage around his head, and it’ll be another two days before he can take those off. This also means the present wasn’t wrapped; she actually had to get the box herself from the bottom of Naruto’s closet, which isn’t a place anyone should go rummaging around alone. When they meet back up, she’s having a talk with him about proper organization.

“Well, she was right,” Sakura says, coming back into the main area where Sasuke’s sitting on the couch, facing her direction. “It’s perfect, seriously.”

Having a birthday on the eve of war is awful, but it’s going to be even worse when his comes around, and she knows it. They’ll actually be in the middle of war. People they know will probably be dead. Likely Naruto won’t be there, either.

What a wonderful way to turn eighteen.

Even blind, Sasuke can still feel out where people are, if not necessarily objects or walls, so when he reaches out for her, he gets her wrist, pulling her down to him. By now, he’s gotten better at touching people, or at least her, Naruto, and Kakashi, which is good, considering they’re about to be surrounded by millions of other shinobi. “Happy birthday, Sakura,” he says, and one corner of his mouth tilts up into half a smile.

Whether this situation is happy or not is up to debate, but they’re about to march to war, so she’s going to have to learn how to take these small moments of calm where she can find them.

 

 

In the days before the start of mobilization, Kakashi doesn’t have a lot of downtime, and his team knows this, so he wouldn’t have thought his team would search him out for anything other than a friendly meal. Even so, Sasuke finds him the day the bandages come off, also known as two days before the start of the war, and says, “I’ve thought of something, but I need your help to test it.”

This is how, three hours later, Kakashi finds himself standing across from his former student at the training grounds they took their first bell test in, forehead protector pushed up with both eyes revealed. “As neither of us have the power to transport ourselves into Kamui,” he says, “this isn’t going to be easy.”

Sasuke’s normal Sharingan had always been a little disconcerting, the oddness of his Mangekyo even more so, and Kakashi hadn’t known it could get any weirder, but now it’s an exact split between the old one, and Itachi’s. “I know,” Sasuke says, pulling out a kunai, “but we have to try. If all versions of Kamui are connected, then I can use his own technique against him - and get myself out if he shifts me inside again.”

Even if this doesn’t work, it’s better if Sasuke gets in at least some practice now, Kakashi figures, so there’s no harm in trying. Neither of them have ever tried to pull anything out of Kamui, either, though, which will only make this harder. “Okay,” he says. “I’m ready.”

It’s only his own speed, and knowledge of Sasuke’s style that give Kakashi enough time to shift the kunai, but it happens too close to his face for comfort. After he moves, there’s a long, silent delay, and then the kunai pops back into existence seconds before it embeds itself into a tree.

“Well,” he says after a moment, ripping it out of the trunk and finding it solid and cold in his hand, “I guess that answers your question. How did you think of this?”

If Sasuke’s eyes are disconcerting, it’s nothing compared to his ability to figure something like this out on his first try. “Well, Kamui definitely means a singular place, not multiple variations, or I thought there had to be a reason behind that. Can we try again?” he asks. “I want to make sure it isn’t a fluke.”

This isn’t a fluke, Kakashi knows that without being told, because before Madara, the only person he’d ever seen with better control than Sasuke was his brother, and now that power is combined. It’s time to see if that’s enough to win a war, because if they take out Madara, then the other side will fall apart without its leader. Despite himself, Kakashi still can’t help but wish the role of Unranked assassin was given to anyone other than a seventeen-year-old boy.

 

 

The Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan means two things: no negative side effects, and a power boost from the original user. Having someone else’s, particularly his own brother’s, is disturbing, but if it means killing Madara before he can get to Naruto, Sasuke’s willing to deal with the knowledge that he’s looking through Itachi’s eyes rather than his own. That said, he’d feel a lot better if Naruto were here helping defend himself.

As Kakashi’s the leader of Third Division, and Sakura and Sasuke are his unofficial, collective second-in-command(s), they help in passing out the new forehead protectors to the two hundred or so people in their group. With his eyes a dark brown rather than a dark blue, or red and black, he was hoping no one would recognize him, but news travels fast, and Suna and Konoha-nin might smile at him, but everyone else looks at him like they’re wondering if they should start devising an attack strategy. More than once he catches someone he recognizes from his own village telling someone else to chill, his name’s Sasuke’s, and didn’t you hear he’s the one who killed Orochimaru.

After nearly four hours of dealing with this, he meets up with Kakashi, Sakura, and Lee, the key members of what Ino nicknamed the Sasuke Defense Squad after a few Kiri-nin said they’d slit his throat in his sleep if he did anything suspicious (really, it’s starting to get old). “Any more death threats?” Kakashi says as Sasuke takes a seat on a log next to his girlfriend, preparing himself for sunset, where they’ll receive instructions from the Kages.

“Nothing to my face,” he answers, and tightens the knot of his new forehead protector. “What about you?”

Just because he’s slightly more hated due to his actions being more recent doesn’t mean he’s the only one here with information on him in the bingo book. There’s a significantly higher price on Kakashi’s head dating back to the end of the Third Shinobi War sixteen years ago. “I’m commander,” he says. “No one’s dumb enough to risk faking friendly fire with me.”

Sasuke’s pretty sure no one’s dumb enough to risk it with him, either, but that doesn’t mean people can’t say it. “What do you think our first orders are going to be?” he says, glancing at the raised rock formation the Kages will appear on later.

“This is more direct than the last war, with different opponents,” Kakashi says, following his gaze. “For as many old war vets there are, we have rookies, too. Kirigakure, Iwagakure, and several small villages are all allowing genin to fight.”

The main five shinobi nations all have the age restriction of fifteen, but that can’t be said for some of the minor ones. As a jonin, Sasuke’s an officer, one of the youngest, but earlier he passed out a forehead protector to a couple of girls and boys who couldn’t have been much older than thirteen. When he was a genin, he had the skill level of a chuunin thanks to Itachi, but that can’t be said for most, and definitely not for anyone that young. Seriously, fuck whoever made that decision, because he’s not up to watching children die, and they’re going to be some of the first casualties.

From Sakura’s frown, he knows he’s not the only one thinking along these lines. “None of us are prepared for this,” she says, pulling her knees up. “Tsunade said Kabuto raised some of the best shinobi to ever live from the grave. How do we kill the dead?”

There’s a pause before Kakashi says, “Fire. A lot of of fire. That’s how you dispose of a shinobi’s corpse to hide its secrets. The principle can’t be too different.”

With his new eyes, Sasuke can use Amaterasu as much as he wants without going blind, even if his eyes bleeding isn’t something he can stop. He has more chakra now, too, and Itachi’s superior genjutsu techniques. Those might work on the living, but he doubts illusions will be effective against the dead.

“Taijutsu won’t do anything, will it?” Lee says, and Sasuke hasn’t heard him sound this dejected in all the time they’ve known each other. “There are _some_ living guys in this army, right?”

Kakashi glances at Sasuke in a way that means nothing good before saying, “More recent intelligence seems to indicate Kabuto took charge of Oto, and contracted those loyal in the village to help.”

Though this makes perfect sense, Sasuke still manages to be surprised. Maybe it’s just how much he hated the man himself, but he really can’t imagine anyone following -

Oh. Right, when they infiltrated Oto, he had a panic attack right in that surveillance room. But it’s been months, by now Sasuke doesn’t get confused the way he used to. What happened with Danzo was the result of stress, and remembering something worse than Otogakure citizens. “Do we have any idea if he can recreate the cursed mark?” he says, pretending he doesn’t notice how the others all look like they’re waiting for his reaction.

“Our intelligence isn’t _that_ good,” Kakashi says. “Most probably have it, though. We haven’t see all the dead, either, but scouting images have picked up the rest of the Akatsuki members, with the exception of the ones you sent you into Kamui.”

At least that means they won’t have to deal with Hidan again, because he was annoying, but it also means Deidara’s back. “Even Sasori?” Sakura asks, frown deepening, and Kakashi nods. “Damn. Who else?”

As of now, the list is short, but outside of the Akatsuki members scouting images picked up, according to Kakashi, a few Kages from across the nations, Neji’s father, Zabuza and Haku, and several names they wouldn’t recognize. “Since we don’t know much about the jutsu,” Kakashi says when he’s done, “there’s not much we can say for sure about the personalities they may or may have retained in their reawakening. If there’s any, and Kabuto’s trying to control that many, there might be a few who switch sides, but we aren’t counting on it.”

“So, we have that plant guy, the dead controlled by someone with no morals,” Sakura says, counting off on her fingers, “Oto-nin, Kabuto himself, and Madara, who’s bad enough on his own. Am I missing anything?”

Nodding in the direction of a group glaring at another group, Lee says, “Look around at the number of people hating on each other. It’s not just the other side we need to worry about.”

Fights have been breaking out all morning and afternoon, though most are broken up quickly enough. Sasuke’s starting to think Konoha-nin might be a little stranger than he realized, because for the most part, they’re the peacekeepers, especially between Iwa and Suna. “Just wait until the first battle, and all this will stop,” Kakashi says. “‘The enemy of my enemy is my friend.’ That never applies to anything more readily than wartime.”

“If Naruto were here, he’d be friends with half of them already,” Sasuke says, which is the closest he’s coming to admitting out loud he really, really wants his friend. His ability to talk to anyone would distract from the fact that Ino even had the opportunity to think up a name like the Sasuke Defense Squad. “What’re the chances Madara’s going to show himself the first battle?”

“High. He’s the leader.”

Sakura sighs, and taps her fingers against her knee. “Are you really going to run off by yourself?”

Though he kept it a secret as long as he could to stop her from worry, he had to own up to the truth about Tsunade’s orders yesterday to make sure none of them would follow him. “I have a plan,” he says, which is half true. “Don’t worry, Sakura. Stronger eyes, remember?”

Even though that doesn’t seem to satisfy her, that’s enough to make her drop it. Instead, Lee asks, “How are you going to stop anyone else from following?”

“There’ll be orders for no one to pursue,” Kakashi says for him. “We just need to hope no one’s suicidal enough not to listen.”

That seems to be all for now, and Sasuke’s not complaining. He doesn’t want to talk about Madara, or think about Madara, and for however long this war lasts, that’s all he’s going to be stuck doing.

If he and Sakura ever get married, he’s taking her family name, because he’s so sick of the Uchiha clan and its bullshit that he wouldn’t mind burning the compound to the ground.

 

 

There’s some barrier jutsu around the amazing moving turtle island that stops the ability to track signals, which is good, because they can get updates even if they can’t give them. Unfortunately, this also means Naruto’s stuck getting all his news from cable and the internet, but whatever. It’s better than no news at all.

From their placement right now, the only signal they can pick up is the Land of Lightning’s stations. “Don’t expect to learn a whole lot from this, kid,” Bee tells him as they sit through the evening weather report, sharing a bowl of popcorn, and as it turns out, Naruto’s actually really glad he befriended the guy, because now that he’s gained control the Kyuubi, he’s bored as fuck most days. Though really, he could do without the rapping Bee does while training. “It not like they can report anything important.”

Yeah, Naruto gets that, because this is public, so the enemy can pick up on it, too, but it’s better than nothing. It’s so stupid that he isn’t allowed to help. “Jiraiya said you can tell whether your side’s winning or not by the news,” he says. “Like, crime and economic reports will get worse, and civilians will start protesting for negotiations.”

Jiraiya said he hoped Naruto would never be put in a position where that would matter, too. Well, look where both of them are now - gone, and stranded. There’s no way to actually communicate with anyone off the island, either, which means Team Kakashi could all die, and he wouldn’t know.

Except that they won’t happen, because they aren’t going to die, not when he’s too far away to help.

“Isn’t this pissing you off?” he says, biting on his thumb nail. “We could be out there right now, and instead we’re _here_.”

Bee claps him on the shoulder so hard Naruto rocks forward. “Be patient, they’ll come asking for us the moment they realize they’re out of their depth,” Bee says, and Naruto doesn’t bother pointing out that the Kazekage was a Jinchuriki, and is totally on board with this decision. “My brother won’t let us sit around here forever just ‘cause thinks it’s a good idea now.”

When Tsunade told him about this, she hadn’t sounded all that happy, and Sakura said she’d been even worse in the beginning, so the Raikage isn’t the only one who’ll come to his sense. But that isn’t exactly what Naruto would call a guarantee. “They’re letting my friend fight, and Madara’s after him too,” he says. “How unfair’s that?”

“Can your friend’s chakra release an all powerful being not seen for centuries past that could destroy the world as we know it?”

“Uh, no?”

“That’s why.”

For someone with so much energy, Bee’s taking this annoyingly calmly, while Naruto’s here about to go crazy from worry. Team Kakashi fights better when they’re all together; everyone knows that. “I’ve faced down the Akatsuki before, like a lot,” he says, crossing his arms. “Kakashi’s so good he’s probably a leader. He could add me to a fight pretty easy.”

As he eats another handful of popcorn, Bee asks, “Copy Cat Hatake Kakashi?”

Naruto nods. “He trained me. Well, he trained me until Jiraiya came and trained me, and then went back to training me. And yeah, I do mean _that_ Jiraiya.”

“You lucky brat,” Bee says, and holds out the bowl for Naruto to take more. “Bet your teammates were jealous.”

“Nah, or at least not Sakura,” he says, and it sucks that the Land of Lightning is so big because they’re still on the weather which mostly, surprise surprise, is about thunderstorms. “She trained under Tsunade. Sasuke got training under his brother before we were even genin. Uchiha Itachi.”

“Wasn’t he killed a couple years back?”

Again, Naruto nods. “Akatsuki. Me and Sasuke went up against our first Akatsuki guys because of that - or in his case, he killed one. Didn’t know _why_ they were there, but we knew who they were. I don’t think they really expected that, but, you know. You don’t find out a crazy terrorist organization murdered a guy who was practically your older brother without doing some kind of research on them.”

Really, they weren’t even all that hard to look up, and whoever decided they should have black jackets with red clouds was an idiot. Could it get more conspicuous? Hell, Naruto’s favorite color is _orange_ , and he still gets that stealth’s a pretty important part of being a shinobi.

Bee gives him a corner eye look. “You went up against these guys as genin, lived, and we’re stuck here? Damn, my brother told me I was suppose to be keeping you under wraps. No one said shit about you being good.”

Before Naruto can point out that’s what he’s been trying to say, the scene on the TV changes to a newsroom, with an anchor woman and words on a screen reading _Fourth Shinobi War on the Rise_. Her hair is his color and curly, looks like it’s stuck together with too much hairspray, and he can’t believe that the best he can do is read between the lines of civilian media.

 

 

A Should Be Dead Deidara attacks along with a guy Naruto thought was Orochimaru but turned out to be Kabuto, and now Yamato’s kidnapped, and they’re heading to Kirigakure. He hadn’t known things could get worse after the Kisame attack, but he was wrong, and they had.

“I’m not just sitting here anymore,” Naruto says, starting to feel claustrophobic from being inside this turtle island. “We _need_ to do something. I killed that guy, so the only way he can be back is if Kabuto can do that thing that Orochimaru did when he invaded Konoha during the chuunin exams, and raise the dead, and how the hell is everyone supposed to fight against that?”

Aoba rubs his fingers to his temple. “I knew we shouldn’t have told you the truth,” he says, which is so insulting Naruto doesn’t even know how to answer. He’s eighteen, not fifteen, and spent two years with Jiraiya; he would’ve been right through any lies they tried to pull on him. “We have orders to keep you under guard, Naruto. There’s a whole war going on to protect you right now. You can’t run out onto the battlefield and not expect there to be consequences.”

Just because he’s one of the two that the Akatsuki are after doesn’t mean Naruto needs protection. Or at least not this kind of protection, anyway. All they have to do is put him near his team, and he’ll get better watch than some obviously not invulnerable island. They’ve been going up against large numbers of enemies at a time together since they were genin. By now, fighting together, and protecting each other are sort of what they’re best at. Not to mention he and Sasuke have already killed Deidara once. It probably wouldn’t have been too hard to pull it off again, especially if they had a damn army with them.

No, confining him here with nowhere to run and a backup of a grand total of six people, one of which is gone, another of which is kidnapped, is a _much_ better idea. Clearly Gaara and the others thought this through to such perfection.

Learning to control the Kyuubi, yeah, that was a necessity, but they should’ve been off this place the moment he did. “You heard what Kabuto said,” he says, scrambling to think of anything that could work as good enough reasoning. “Deidara’s not the only one he’s bringing back. There are Akatsuki members who are literally immortal, who Sasuke only killed because he threw into an alternate dimension, and who knows? Maybe those guys can be brought back, too.”

“So you can kill them with a Sharingan?” Aoba says. “Good, our Sharingan users know what to look out for.”

“But you can kill them with wind chakra, too.”

“A lot Suna-nin will get the opportunity to prove themselves, then.”

This is going nowhere. Turning to Bee, Naruto says, “Come on, help out. You don’t want to be here either, right?”

Bee doesn’t even look up, headphones in and his music loud enough to hear even without them. Great, so Naruto’s also completely on his own with this. Aoba, who still just seems so unimpressed by everything, says, “Look, I get that you’re worried, but the whole shinobi world is out there fighting. And if it’s your team in specific, one of them is a medical expert who, from what I hear, can break apart a wall with a punch, and the other can create a giant guardian chakra creature by blinking. Kakashi is known for being one of the best shinobi active right now. They can take care of themselves.”

Yeah, until Sasuke loses his eyesight and Sakura has to heal him, leaving them both exhausted and open for attack, and people said Jiraiya was one of the best, but he isn’t here. “I know that,” Naruto says. “But what about everyone else? Basically every Konoha-nin chuunin and up is there. I can help. By being here, I’m as good as abandoning them.”

“That’s their mission, their orders,” Aoba says, running his hand down his face. “Ours are to stay here, and wait to avoid the two of you getting captured. By the time he was fifteen, Sasuke was scaring people with how good he was, Naruto, and he got snatched out of a crowded apartment building. I would have thought that was enough proof that no one’s safe, regardless of skill level.”

While that’s true, Sasuke was injured, and unprepared, two things Naruto’s not. Oh, and he’d also be surrounded by an army. That’s a pretty big advantage. “Abandoning my team is worse than disobeying orders to do nothing,” he says, crossing his arms. “There’s nothing worse than a person who leaves their friends when they’re in danger.”

Throwing his hands up in the air, Aoba says, “I quit. Naruto, you’re staying, end of discussion. We’ll be to Kirigakure in two hours.”

With that, he walks away, leaving Naruto fuming in a corner. If Aoba won’t help him, Naruto decides, then he’ll just have to help himself, because he’s not risking anyone else dying. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it has a weird cut off, but I decided to save starting the war for the next chapter. They are so much better prepared than they are in canon thanks to wonders of technology.


End file.
